ANALYTIC 



ELOCUTION 



CONTAINING STUDIES, THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL, OF EXPRESSIVE 

SPEECH 



'Ar 



JAMES E. MURDOCH, 

Author of " The Stage" and "A Plea for Spoken Language. 




NOV 3 1884JJ 



^»^7.«r»^ 



VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & CO. 



C INC INN A TI 



NEW YORK 



Eclectic Educational 



SERIES. TtffHI 



High School and College Course of Study. 



White's A T ew Complete Arithmetic. 
Ray's A T ew Higlier Arithmetic. 
Ray's New Algebras. 
Ray's Higher Mathematics. 
Schuyler's Complete Algebra. 
Eclectic School Geometry. 
Schuyler's Principles of Logic. 
Schuyler's Psychology. 
Duffel's (Henneauin's) French 

Method. 
Buffet's French Literature. 
Hepburn's English Rhetoric. 



Thalheimer's Historical Series. 
A T orton's Natural Philosophy. 
Norton's Elements of Physics. 
Norton's Elements of Chemistry. 
Eclectic Physiology. 
Andrezus's Elementary Geology. 
Andrews's Manual of the Consti- 
tution. 
Gregory's Political Economy. 
Studies in English Literature. 
Hewett's Pedagogy. 
Bartholomew' s Latin Series. 



DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULARS ON APPLICATION. 



Copyright, 1884, by 
Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. 



eclectic press: 
van antwerp, bragg k co. 



PREFACE 



In an experience extending over forty years, I have been brought 
to the conviction that vocal culture is what is most needed in the 
study of Elocution ; for this reason, in the present manual I have 
formulated exercises adapted to the use of classes in the different 
grades of the schools. The exercises are in all cases in consonance 
with nature's laws. The speaking voice, by a proper process of 
training, is as capable of development in strength, beauty, and flex- 
ibility as the singing voice. 

The rapidity and carelessness of social and business habit in 
speech, in a great measure, costs us the grace and beauty of our 
language by depriving it of quantity and quality; and slovenliness 
of action in the organs deprives the elements of the resonance be- 
longing to their full and correct utterance. Mechanical mincing 
cramps the vowels, and deprives consonants of vocal power. 

The theory and practice of a true method should develop the 
vocal powers, Bide by side with the growth of the mind, and by the 
time the student has reached the high schools and institutions of 
advanced learning, he should be able to deliver his essays and papers 
with the same proficiency that he displays in their verbal or written 
form. 

The scholar, in gaining control and use of the voice in the expres- 
sion of all the emotions, unconsciously to himself, overcomes that 
constrained, awkward bearing, which in many cases arises from the 
conviction that he does not know haw to do that which is required 
of him. 

I do not consider that the treatment of the subject in the present 
manual is an exhaustive one. The art is, it may be said, in its 
infancy, and certain principles require elaboration which in time 
will be universally understood. 

I have made use of the older authorities in all cases where I have 

felt that they are as valuable as when first presented for use; — not 

that I do not draw from all sources, the modern as well as those of 

earlier generations. It is the student's business to keep abreast of 

(iii) 



iv Preface. 



the times, and it is a rare thing with me to lay down any work of 
merit pertaining to my art without having widened my information, 
and also having noted the fact for future use. 

I have not attempted an exposition of the subject matter by the 
use of my own notations; I have preferred those of Rush, and 
others who have followed his lead, inasmuch as the diagrams given 
are finely illustrative of the principles of melodic progression and 
cadence. The emphatic significance and distinctive enforcement of 
these have never been exhaustively interpreted and applied to in- 
structive purposes. They present a well defined method of eluci- 
dating the meaning of an author, and of giving proper expression 
to the sentiment or passion conveyed in language. 

The notations, in all cases, are not to be considered as the fixed 
and determinate modes of utterance; on the contrary, they simply 
express the notator's rendering of certain passages; and the symbols 
employed are capable of conveying to another the author's meaning 
in the absence of vocal illustration. 

Gesture of face, hands, and figure must be studied from standard 
works on that subject, and should in no case be taught until spon- 
taneously at the command of the teacher. In "A Plea for Spoken 
Language " I have introduced Aaron Hill's studies in expression, 
which I recommend to all students of Elocution. This work may be 
considered as an aid to " RusselPn Vocal Culture,'" the joint work of 
Prof. William Russell and myself, prepared at the time that my 
School of Oratory in Boston was in operation. The methods of 
Vocal Drill employed were in accordance with my studies in 
anatomy and physiology, and were endorsed by many of the leading 
physicians of Boston, among whom were Drs. Humphrey Storer, 
Winslow Lewis, Edward Reynolds, and others. 

Now that my work in the direction of general teaching is draw- 
ing to a close, I dedicate to my daughter, Mrs. R. Murdoch 
Hollingshead, who has been associated with me in my work, and to 
the teachers of the future, the work in which I have labored to sim- 
plify and make practical Dr. Rush's "Philosophy of the Voice," 
which I consider the most complete system ever offered to the 
student of Elocution. 

James E. Murdoch. 

" Roadside," Cincinnati, O., May 15, 1884. 



CONTENTS 



I. — Introductory Outline of Principles 
II. Mechanism of the Voice 

Exercises in Breathing 
Exercises in Breathing 
The Catch Breath Exercise 

III.— Pitch 

IV.— The Concrete Movement 

Concrete Intervals and Waves . 
Forms of Stress on the Concrete 
V. — The Elements of Language 

Table of Tonic Elements 
Table of Subtonic Elements 
Table of Atonic Elements 
VI. — Production of Tonic Sounds 
VII. — Exercises on the Tonic Elements 
Tables of Notation 

Concrete Intervals 
Discrete Intervals . 
Indefinite Syllables 
VIII. — Exercises on the Subtonic Elements 
Tables ..... 
IX. — Exercises on the Atonic Elements 

Tables of Short Tonics, Abrupt Subtonic, and 

Atonic Elements 
Division of Syllables . 
X. — Exercises on the Elements in Syllabic Combinations 
Tonic Elements .... 
Subtonic and Atonic Elements . 
Words of more than One Syllable 
Articulative Exercises . 
XI. — Articulation and Vocal Culture . 

Words 

Studies in Enunciation 
XII. — Implication, with Exercises for Practice 

(v) 



9 

12 

16 
19 
23 

27 
31 

35 
36 
38 
38 
43 
44 
46 
56 
56 
56 
63 
65 
68 

7i 

76 

79 
83 
85 
85 
87 
89 
92 
96 

99 
103 

116 






VI 



Contents. 



CHAPTER 

XIII.— The Mode of Utterance 
XIV.— Quality 

Examples in Natural Quality 

The Call . 

Orotund Quality . 

Aspirated Quality 

Guttural Quality . 

Pectoral Quality . 

Falsetto Quality . 
XV. — Practice on the Concrete 

Radical Stress 

Final Stress . 

Median Stress 

Thorough Stress . 

Compound Stress . 

The Loud Concrete 

Tremor . 
XVI. — Relation between Mind and Voice 
XVIL— Diatonic Melody 

Triad of the Cadence 

Full Cadence 

First Duad . 

Second Duad 

The Feeble Cadence 

The Prepared Cadence 

False Cadence 

Exercises on Melodic Successions 

Exercises on the Phrases of Melody 

Examples of Different Forms of Cad 
XVIII. — Intonation at Pauses .... 

Examples for Practice 

Downward Movement in Diatonic Melody 
XIX. — Expressive Intonation 

Wider Downward Movements 

The Semitone .... 
XX. — Uses of the Wave in Expression 

The Wave of the Second 

The Unequal Wave 

The Double and Continued Waves 
XXI. — Uses of the Tremor in Expression . 



Contents. 



vn 



XXII. 



Den 



ward 



XXIII, 



XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI, 

XXVII, 

XXVIII 



XXIX. 



XXX 



XXXI. 

XXXII, 

XXXIII, 

XXXIV 



Exercises for Practice 

Exercise in Laughing 
— Interrogative Intonation . 

Rule I 

Rule II 

Rule III 

Rule IV 

Rule V 

Rule VI 

Grammatical Questions requiring 
Intonation 
— Expressive Melody ; Sentential Pitch ; Transitu 
Pitch 

Sentential Pitch 

Transition in Pitch . 

General Divisions in Pitch 
— Force ..... 

Examples .... 
— Stress — Radical 
— Final Stress .... 
— Median Stress .... 
— Thorough Stress 

Compound Stress 

The Loud Concrete . 

Semitone .... 

Tremor .... 

Concluding Remarks on Stress 
— Time : Quantity and Movement 

Quantity . 

Movement 

Examples . 
— Pauses 

Pauses of Sense 

Pauses of Emotion 

Exercises . 
— Rhythmus or Measure of Speech 
. — Accent . 
. — Emphasis 

Examples, classified 
Interjections and Exclamatory Sentences 



261 
263 
264 
268 
269 
270 
271 
272 
274 

276 

281 
283 
284 
294 
303 
307 
315 
327 
332 
338 
340 
341 
341 
342 
346 
349 
349 
35i 
354 
364 
364 
374 
376 
378 
396 
399 
414 
420 



Vlll 



Contents. 



SELECTIONS. 








PAGE 


Eulogy on Wendell Phillips 


Geo. Wm. Curtis. 


433 


The Character of our Savior 




435 


The Human Voice .... 


. 0. W. Holmes. 


437 


Love of Change .... 


Ruskin. 


440 


Speech in the Knapp Trial 


. Daniel Webster. 


443 


Parallel between Pope and Dryden . 


Sa m ae I Johnson . 


445 


Benevolence and Charity . 


Steele. 


446 


Reflections on Westminster Abbey . 


" Spectator.' 1 


449 


The Man of Genius .... 


Rush in. 


45i 


The Ampitheatre of Titus 


Gibbon. 


452 


Dialogue between King John and Hubert . Shakespeare. 


454 


Scene from "The Iron Chest" 


. George Colman. 


455 


Scene from Henry V 


Shakespeare. 


457 


Scene from Richard III . 


Shakespeare. 


459 


Scene from Hamlet .... 


Shakespeare. 


461 


The Prodigal ..... 


Bible. 


464 


Select Passages from the Book of Job 


Bible. 


465 


Selections from the Book of Isaiah . 


Bible. 


468 


The Vision of Sir Launfal 


Lowell. 


469 


Extracts from "The Voyage of Life 


' . . . Janvier. 


472 


New England's Chevy Chase . 


Edward Everett Hale. 


476 


Song of the Greek Bard . 


Byron. 


478 


The Destruction of Sennacherib 


Byron. 


481 


Sandalphon ..... 


Longfellcnu. 


481 


The Ride of Collins Graves 


. John Boyle O'Reilly. 


483 


Crabbed Age and Youth . 




485 


Antony and Cleopatra 


. Wm. H. Lylle. 


488 


Thomas Buchanan Read . 


Janvier. 


489 


Song from " The Wild Wagoner of the 


Alleghanies " Read. 


490 


Dying in Harness .... 


. John Boyle O'Reilly. 


491 


Mary of Castle Cary 


. Hector Macneil. 


492 


The Spinning Wheel Song 


.John Francis Waller. 


493 


Catawba Wine ..... 


Longfellow. 


494 


The King of Yvetot 


, Be ranger. 


496 


Nearer, my God, to Thee . 


Sarah F. Adams. 


497 


A Hymn ...... 


Addison. 


498 


A Safe Stronghold .... 


. Martin Luther. 


499 



ANALYTIC ELOCUTION. 



Chapter I. 

Introductory Outline of Principles. 

1. Spoken Language is employed to declare that 
which passes in the human mind in its various states and 
conditions. 

All that passes in the mind may be reduced to two 
heads, — ideas and emotions. By ideas we mean all simple 
perceptions or thoughts. By emotions, all the effects pro- 
duced upon the mind by those ideas, including the calmer 
feelings or sentiments which result from a stimulation of 
the fancy or the imagination, and those states of violent 
mental agitation arising from the excitement of the strong- 
est passions. 

The speaking voice possesses distinct means for declar- 
ing these several states of thought, sentiment, and passion 
through the varied employment of its constituent elements. 

2. The two great ends of elocution, or the study of 
spoken language for artistjc purposes, are : (i) To improve 
and develop the voice to its fullest capacity as regards 
beauty, power, and flexibility. (2) To adapt it to the cor- 
rect and natural utterance of all thought, sentiment, or 
passion. 

The two constantly react upon each other, for in study- 
ing the vocal elements employed in the utterance of lan- 

(ix) 



io Murdoch's Elocution. 

guage, their character, and correct production by the 
organs, — the voice is developed, and the ear and mind at 
the same time accustomed to the value of sounds in their 
relation to thought and passion. 

3. All of the elements of spoken language, articulate 
and expressive, are comprehended under the five follow- 
ing heads, which designate the five generic properties of 
the voice : Pitch, Quality, Force, Abruptness, and Time. 

A study of these five properties in detail, and of the 
multiplied combinations of their several forms, degrees, and 
varieties, familiarizes the student with all the articulative 
and expressive powers of speech. 

4. Pitch relates to the variation of the voice with re- 
gard to acuteness or gravity, or high and low, on what is 
termed in music the scale. It is a primary element of 
effect and significance in speech, and may, in all its vari- 
eties, be brought perfectly under the command of the 
organs for the purposes of art. 

5. Quality is the kind of voice, and is popularly desig- 
nated as rough, smooth, harsh, full, thin, musical, etc. It is 
here more definitely described under the divisions of the 
natural, the aspirated, the falsetto, an improved quality 
called the orotund, the pectoral, and guttural. 

6. Force is a term used to designate the power, 
energy, or intensity with which a sound of the voice is 
uttered. Its degrees are designated by the terms loud, soft, 
forcible, weak, strong, feeble, vehement, and moderate. The 
different forms of its specific application are exhibited in 
what is called stress, or the application of force to certain 
parts or to the whole of the extent of a syllable. 

7. Abruptness is the suddenness, combined with (a 
greater or less degree of) fullness, with which every 
syllabic sound may be opened. It may vary from the 
most delicate, but clear opening of a syllable, to its most 
violent or forcible explosion. 



Outline of Principles. 



8. Time is the duration or measure of sound. With 
regard to individual syllables, it is called quantity, and 
means the duration of sound heard on each, — as the long 
quantity or short quantity of a syllable. When the simple 
term quantity is employed, long quantity is understood. 

Time also relates to the rapidity or slowness of utter- 
ance in the succession of any series or aggregate of words. 
Thus, a sentence is said to be uttered in quick, slow, or 
moderate time. 

Time has relation, also, to pauses, either between words 
or groups of words; also, to rhythmus, or the musical 
measure of speech. 

9. Elocution may then be defined as the art of so em- 
ploying the Quality, Pitch, Force, Time, and Abruptness 
of the voice as to convey the sense, sentiment, and passion 
of composition or discourse in the fullest and most natural 
manner, and at the same time with the greatest possible 
gratification to the ear. 

The first acquisition of the student in the order of sys- 
tematic study, must be a knowledge and control of the 
voice-producing mechanism. The next, a similar knowl- 
edge and mastery of the vocal elements as elements, pre- 
vious to any attempt to execute their more difficult com- 
binations in the consecutive utterances of language. 



Chapter II. 

Mechanism of the Voice Considered in its Practical Relations to 
Vocal Culture. 

10. The organic production of voice naturally invites 
our attention first; but the details are too extensive and 
too minute to warrant my here entering upon them spe- 
cifically, and belong more properly to the domain of 
Anatomy and Physiology. I will present, however, a very 
brief outline of the process by which the breath of life is 
digested into sound and articulate speech, — thus becoming 
audible soul, endowed with the power of generating 
thought and feeling, and creating the visible results of 
action. 

The production of all vocal sound requires, in the first 
place, a full supply of the primary element of vocality, 
atmospheric air, to be taken in by the respiratory organs, 
and then furnished to the vocal apparatus. By muscular 
expansion and contraction, a certain quantity of blood, at 
each pulsation of the heart, is carried to the lungs, and 
there vitalized by the oxygen contained in the air. This 
air passes from the mouth to the trachea, or wind-pipe, 
through the glottis and larynx, and thence through the 
bronchial tubes to the minute air-cells of the lungs. Hav- 
ing there performed its life-giving function, it passes out 
through the same organs in a decomposed state, and it is 
this seemingly useless breath, which, in its passage to the 
outer air, constitutes the material for the formation of that 
glorious gift, the human voice. 

(12) 



Mechanism of the Voice. 13 



11. The acts of Inspiration and Expiration, together con- 
stituting respiration, or breathing, which alternately (ill and 
empty the minute cells of the lungs, is mainly impelled by 
the muscles of the abdomen, acting upon the more imme- 
diate agent of the breathing process called the Diaphragm, 
a very strong muscle, arched in shape, upon which the 
lungs rest, and which forms a partition between them and 
the abdominal organs. The arch of this muscle contracts 
in inspiration, pressing the abdominal organs downward 
and outward, and thus making room for the increased 
body of the inflated lungs. In expiration, the muscle 
recovers its former position, thus pushing or pressing 
against the lungs, and driving the air out. It has been 
figuratively termed the bellows of the vocal organs. 

12. A specific muscular action, involving many compli- 
cations, produces an elevation and depression of that cage- 
like structure, composed of the ribs and breast-bone, which 
contains the lungs, in order that those spongy bodies, when 
filled to their utmost capacity with the inspired air, may be 
accommodated with corresponding room. 

The contraction of the muscles of the chest, acting in 
sympathy with those of the abdomen and diaphragm, con- 
trol the movements of respiration, which are involuntary 
in the mere act of breathing, but comparatively voluntary 
in expelling the air in the different forms of vocality and 
articulated aspiration. 

13. The Larynx is composed of a number of different 
cartilages, attached together by muscles, and forms a con- 
tinuation to the tube of the trachea. It communicates 
with the throat by the glottis, a small membranous or mus- 
cular fissure, the edges of which constitute the vocal 
chords or lips of the glottis. The glottis is sometimes called 
the mouth of the larynx, or inner mouth. The glottis 
may be opened or closed at will, except in coughing or 
sneezing, when its muscles obey the nerves of respiration. 



Murdochs Elocution. 



When the breath is forced out by an act of volition, 
through the aperture of the glottis, without agitating the 
vocal chords, there is no vocality, only an audible sound 
of hard breathing or aspiration. 

But when the chords are more or less moved by the 
air expelled, and thrown into vibration, vocal sound is 
produced. The sound thus produced by the vibration of 
this delicate muscular organism of the vocal chords, fills 
the sonorous cavern at the back part of the mouth called 
the Pharynx, and reverberating through the cavities of 
the head and chest, and striking against the sounding- 
board, as it may be termed, of the roof of the mouth, at 
last issues from the lips a perfected result of nature's 
handiwork, to be made as plastic as the potter's clay, and 
shaped to the various purposes of use and beauty in 
language. 

14. The entire apparatus of human speech may be 
divided into two classes of organs. These are : (1) The 
Vocal organs, or those portions of the organic system em- 
ployed in the production, admeasurement, and variation 
of voluntary, tunable sounds. These are common to man 
and to the lower animals. (2) Articulative organs, or those 
portions and members of the mouth and larynx by which 
we superadd to the tunable impulses of sound, the phe- 
nomena of elemental and verbal utterance, and which are 
peculiar to the human species. 

Spoken language is the result of the consentaneous 
action of the vocal and the articulative organs. Independ- 
ently of the lower jaw, whose motions contribute to dis- 
tinct utterance, and the nasal passages, the articulative 
organs are six in number. Four of them are active: viz., 
the tongue, the uvula, the lips of the mouth and the lips 
of the glottis or vocal chords, — the last belonging to both 
the vocal and articulative organs. Two are passive; viz., 
the front teeth and the gums. 



Mechanism of the Voice. 15 



15. The thoughts, emotions, and passions of the human 
being acting upon the organic mechanism of the breath, 

of vocality, and of enunciation, excite each to method 
and force of action; and those sounds of the voice are 
produced peculiar in form and duration, altitude or de- 
pression, force or softness, in their varied degrees, to the 
thought, emotion, or passion to be expressed. 

16. If speech be regulated by a knowledge of the 
structure and functions of the organs which it employs, 
and of their relation to other parts of the body according 
to the laws of exercise and rest, there never can be any 
inconvenience for want of breath, any straining of the 
voice, any bronchial or pulmonary irritations resulting from 
even their most active and energetic exercise. A true 
system of vocal culture must be based upon such knowl- 
edge, and comprehend a consequently intelligent training 
of the muscles of the voice-making mechanism, with a 
view to voluntarily exercise and energize the functions of 
each; and it must advance by degrees until the student 
can trust this mechanism to perform whatever labor he 
imposes without conscious volition, but through a subtle 
sympathy with, rather than an order from the brain. 

17. It is not necessary, though it is desirable, to under- 
stand the anatomy and physiology of the organs in minute 
detail, but the student must at least know and realize what 
organs produce or directly influence important vocal 
effects. * 



A knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the entire 
vocal mechanism, however, can not be too accurate and compre- 
hensive in the case of those who undertake to teach the subject 
of Elocution. I^or such knowledge, the teacher is referred to books 
and lectures devoted exclusively to the anatomy and physiology of 
the voice. For plates and description of vocal organs, see " Vocal 
Culture," by Rev. Francis T. Russell. 



1 6 Murdoch' 's Elocution. 

The general advantages of correct vocal exercises, or, 
as they are sometimes termed, ''vocal gymnastics," when 
properly exercised and judiciously graduated to the phys- 
ical strength of the student, may be enumerated as fol- 
lows : 

(i) They give vitality to the whole system by expanding, 
through the means of regulated and thorough inspirations, 
the entire body of the lungs, giving increased breadth to 
the surface of the interior lining of the air-cells containing 
the delicate veins through which the blood flows in its 
subjection to the vitalizing operations of aeration. 

(2) They impart vigor, and consequent power of endur- 
ance, to the muscles of the abdomen, diaphragm, and the 
other sympathetic muscular powers; it is to the disci- 
plined activity of these muscles we owe the strength, 
volume, and qualities of voice required in all artistic 
expression. 

(3) As the crowning advantage of proper vocal train- 
ing, the muscles comprehended in the delicate organism 
of the larynx, glottis, and throat, are kept in health and 
vigor for the discharge of their important part in the pro- 
duction of voice, and above all are rendered pliant to the 
will, — to the full possibilities of force and beauty in the 
utterance of language. 



Exercises in Breathing. 

18. As all vocality, from the instinctive cry of the infant 
to the most extended effort of the developed voice, is so 
inseparably connected with respiration, it is to the opera- 
tions of breathing alone, in its gentler and more aspirated 
forms, that our attention and practice toward acquiring an 
educated control of the muscles governing voice-production 
will be first directed. As preparatory, however, to the 



Mechanism of the Voice. 17 

special training involved in these and succeeding exen 
I would suggest that those physical exercises compre- 
hended under the head of gymnastics and calisthenics, 
would, if practiced in moderation, be invaluable to the 
student in giving tone and elasticity to the general sys- 
tem.* 

(1) Let the student stand in a perfectly easy position, 
upon either the right or left foot, the other slightly in 
advance, the arms folded at the back, which position de- 
presses the shoulders naturally, and gives all the expansion, 
or elevation, as it is sometimes termed, necessary to the 
fullest possible action of the chest; the weight of the body 
may be allowed to fall on the other foot, as the student 
grows stiff or in the least degree weary, f In this per- 
fectly easy attitude, fill the lungs by deep, full inspiration, 
and then expire slowly with slight force. Repeat four or 
five times. 

This exercise is merely an exemplification of natural 
breathing, slightly exaggerated, as it would be by the 
necessities of energetic or impassioned utterance. The 
student's attention should here be directed to the muscular 
phenomena which are exhibited in replenishing and exhaust- 
ing the lungs. When the breath is comparatively exhausted, 
there is a necessity for a full inspiration to refill the 



*I would suggest the moderate use of light dumb-bells, or light 
Indian clubs, as an excellent means of properly exercising the mus- 
cles of the arms and chest. These may be used with advantage 
before the breathing exercises. 

tThe direction sometimes given to " hold up the chest," " elevate 
the sternum and ribs," etc., as a special advantage in the service 
of breathing and speech, and as preparatory to their exercises, is a 
gratuitous injunction, because, when we inhale fully, the breast- 
bone and ribs rise naturally, and of necessity, and gradually 
expand the cavity of the chest sufficiently to accommodate the 
graduallv enlarging volume of the lungs. 
M. E.— 2. 



1 8 Murdoch's Elocution. 

emptied air-cells, which will be speedily complied with if 
no obstruction is offered to prevent the operation of the 
natural function of the lungs, the air being sucked in, as it 
were, by the action of the organs.* 

(2) To realize the full force of the respiratory process, 
the lungs must be comparatively emptied by a special act 
of the will. The act of refilling them arises from ne- 
cessity, and is of a marked and instantaneous character. 
Such is the peculiar form of respiration by which the 
student can best be made to perceive and understand the 
degrees of difference between natural, easy breathing, 
under ordinary circumstances, and that degree of muscular 
exertion in inspiration and expiration necessary for the 
efforts of speech. Let him repeat the exercises until he is 
made fully conscious of the expansion of the chest, the 
rise and fall of the ribs, together with the contraction and 
extension of the muscles of the abdomen and of the dia- 
phragm, all of which movements are attendant upon the 
respiratory process. 

The greater indraughts of air will call into play in pro- 
portion to the increased effort additional muscles of the 
back and other parts, the position of which will be indi- 
cated by the action. 

(3) Draw a full, deep inspiration, and then effuse the 
breath in the slow and distinctly audible breathing ex- 
hibited in the sustained expiration of a deep sigh.f When 
the lungs are apparently emptied, after a brief pause inhale 



" :; ' r The mistake is often made of supposing that the atmospheric 
pressure from without will fill the lungs if the mouth is merely 
held open. As a proof of this, consider the means for resuscitating 
one who has been drowned. 

t Let it be understood that the lungs are never entirely emptied 
or exhausted of air, as only a certain proportion of their contents 
are subject to the will. 



Mechanism of the Voice. 19 

again, and repeat the above mentioned movement three or 
four times, until the gradual effusion of breath is marked 
by the same lengthened smoothness and equable How as that 
of the silent expiration, — which result is the object of the 
exercise. 

Further Exercises in Breathing. 

(4) In the same position as before indicated, take the 
breath deliberately and steadily ; after a full inspiration is 
attained, let it be given out slowly in a steadily but gently 
effused and whispered expiration of the element h, which 
is a simple breathing sound. Let this be sustained until 
all the air in the lungs is exhausted. In this and the fol- 
lowing exercises, the aspiration must come, as it were, from 
the very depths of the throat. 

(5) Let as much breath be drawn in as the lungs can 
easily contain, then send it forth in an equable flow, in 
the form of a gentle, breathing whisper of the syllable 
he, the mouth slightly open, the corners drawn back. 
This should be repeated several times, until the student 
can sustain a comparatively full expiration on a deliberate 
and unbroken effusion of breath, free from all jerking and 
unsteadiness, in a gentle, but distinctly audible breathing 
whisper. 

• (6) Draw in the breath as before, and emit it with a 
somewhat forcible, expulsive, whispered breathing of the 
syllable hah, the mouth moderately open, the lips slightly 
rounded. After a moderate prolongation of the expulsive 
form, let the whispering sound vanish gently, so to speak, 
in the bottom of the throat. 

(7) Inspire freely, and after a momentary pause expel 
the air suddenly, with a sudden or explosive breathing, 
whispered utterance on the syllable haw, the mouth wide 
open, and the aspirated sound coming from the very depths 



20 Mwdocti s Elocution. 

of the throat. Prolong the vanishing sound in this exer- 
cise as long as possible, without distressing the parts. 
Care must be taken to maintain the aspirated form of ex- 
piration free from any vocality. By this process, nearly 
all the air contained in the lungs is forcibly driven out, and 
in the repetitions of it the student must use his judgment, 
remembering that the process is more exhausting to the 
lungs than that in the preceding exercises. 

(8) Inhale fully, and then, after a momentary pause, 
give out the breath of this one inspiration in three suc- 
cessive and distinct breathing, whispered utterances of the 
three syllables, he, hah, haw, in the manner before as- 
signed to each. There must be a momentary pause be- 
tween each by holding the breath; i. e., arresting the 
action of the diaphragm. 

(9) After a full inspiration, let the breath be expelled 
on three successive expulsions or jets on the syllable he, 
giving to each an equal share of the one inspiration, fol- 
lowing the same directions concerning momentary pause, 
as in the preceding. 

(10) Again, let a full inspiration be taken, and the same 
process as above repeated on the syllable Iiah, with in- 
creased expulsive force. 

(11) After full inspiration, let the breath be given out, 
following the same directions on the three explosive whis- 
pered utterances of the syllable haw. 

19. In the repetition for practice of 10 and 11, the ex- 
pulsive force and explosive abruptness represented in each 
should be gradually increased. 

The above exercises should be conducted by the teacher 
in the following manner : 

The teacher, holding up his open hand, counts, delib- 
erately, one, two, three. The pupil having taken breath 
during the counting of the teacher, gives the first sound, 
he. 



Mechanism of I he Voice. 21 

'The teacher counts, with hand raised, one, two, three, 
the pupil breathing and repeating the second sound three 
times to one expiration, thus: hah, hah, hah. 

The teacher counts again, one, two, and three; his 
hand gradually falls from its upright position to his side, 
while the pupil gives forth the enlarged volume of air 
from the lungs, when fully inflated, on the explosive, 
haw. 

All of the exercises must be graduated as to their force, 
time of duration, and frequency of repetition, to the capacity 
and comfort of the student. Ordinarily, four or five repeti- 
tions of each at a time will be sufficient at first, pausing 
and breathing in the ordinary way for a few moments be- 
tween each to avoid the dizziness which results from too 
excessive and rapid respiration. The exercises may be 
practiced with benefit to the health four or five times 
daily, even by those who do not pursue their application 
to the purposes of artistic speech. 

The more forcible of these exercises will further discip- 
line the respiratory muscles, and strengthen them for a 
future vigorous expulsion or explosion of the breath in the 
utterance of the successive syllables of language, or in 
throwing the entire force of one expiration on the em- 
phatic syllable of some one important word. The practice 
on the first or effusive form of breathing is calculated not 
only to strengthen the muscles, but to habituate the lungs 
to a regulated and measured action, and to place the 
gentle, gradual, and sustained effusion of breath at the 
command of the will for the perfect utterance of the 
firm and steady tones indicative of a reposeful state of 
mind. 

The effusive breath may be said to flow, the expulsive to 
rusk, and the explosive to burst into the outer air. These 
three forms of breathing, it will be found, when converted 
into vocality, represent the three forms which language 



22 Murdoch's Elocution. 

assumes in its varied utterance from tranquillity to pas- 
sion. 

20. We are now prepared to see the relations between 
the act of breathing and articulate speech ; how, by acquir- 
ing a perfect control over the muscles of respiration, we 
may deal out the breath in a continuous stream, or break 
it into portions, and divide it with accuracy among a suc- 
cession of syllables. 

(1) Let each of the preceding forms of aspiration be 
given with vocality, following precisely the same directions 
as to method of proceeding. 

(2) The exercise given below will enable the student to 
sustain his tones firmly through one expiration; they are 
not speech tones, nor are they song, — the latter they re- 
semble in continuity only. By gaining a steady control of 
the diaphragm, the tones issuing from the larynx will be- 
come firm, round, and, in time, clear. This is essentially 
a vocal gymnastic exercise to give strength to the tone- 
producing organs. 

(3) After deep inspiration, taken while the teacher slowly 
counts one, two, three, let the student sound the long tonic 
a, holding it as long as it remains firm and round; when it 
becomes weak and vibratory, stop it at once, then in the 
same manner hold e, 1, 6, and u. If, in the beginning of 
his practice, the pupil can hold a tone ten or fifteen 
seconds, he is doing well; but gradually he will be able 
to extend the tone to thirty, forty, and even sixty 
seconds. After some time, the exercise can be given with 
a view to the opening of the radical, which gives purity 
to the tone, and it can also be given as a practice in 
pitch. 

(4) Another excellent exercise consists in filling the 
lungs, and then repeating the vowels a, 8, 1, 6, u, as many 
times as possible to one expiration. 



Mechanism of the Voice. 



The Catch Breath Exercise. 

21. The following exercise is to cultivate the habit of 
taking the breath quickly and inaudibly, with deep inspira- 
tion at the short pauses of consecutive utterance, and to 
economize the breath in apportioning it to words. 

(i) Inspire fully but inaudibly. Then count one — tiuo — 
three [take short breath] four— five — six [inspire quickly] 
seven — eight — nine, etc., etc. 

(2) Inspire, and count in the same manner in groups of 
five numerals, taking breath quickly between the groups. 
Inspire, count in groups of ten, and so on until twenty 
and thirty may be counted easily at one breath, the 
student gradually accustoming himself to use no more 
breath in the utterance of each word than is actually 
necessary. 

The short breaths are simply an indrawing of the air 
contained in the mouth, the outer air rushing in to take 
its place. Increased exertion or force of utterance of 
course demands deeper indraughts and more frequent 
supplies. 

This exercise, besides teaching the economy of breath, 
will place under the control of the will a habit of nature 
in our ordinary use of the voice, for slight observation 
will show us that in speaking naturally we do not wait 
until the breath is entirely exhausted to restore it all at 
once with one deep inspiration, but take every oppor- 
tunity to replenish the constant waste by quick indraughts 
between groups of words, where the language will best 
allow of it, without retarding the utterance or disrupting 
the sense. In this way the organs work without fatigue, 
for, the waste being constantly restored, they are never 
without a sufficient supply for their needs. The breath 
must be renewed at every pause of any duration, in the 



24 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

form of deep, easy breathing, unless the excitement of 
emotion causes panting or sighing, when a short, jerky 
movement becomes necessary. 

Inspiration should be carried on as much as possible 
through the nose, and with closed lips; this, however, in 
the hurried action of speech, can not always be done. 

22. The acts of gasping and panting are more violent 
forms of aspirated breath, excited by nature to restore her 
disturbed equilibrium attendant upon the irregular or sus- 
pended respiration which accompanies extreme excitement 
or undue physical exertion. Sighing deeply, and groan- 
ing, are also efforts of nature to restore her equilibrium 
when her natural breathing has been disturbed or sus- 
pended by extreme suffering, grief, or other mental excite- 
ment. They are produced by taking large gulps of air 
into the lungs, and then, by suppressed muscular effort, 
forcing the breath out in a continuous stream, which, com- 
ing in contact with the vocal chords without exciting them 
to full vibration, passes out of the aperture of the mouth 
with a hard breathing sound, mixed with suppressed vo- 
cality, expressive of a distressed state of the mind. It 
will thus be seen that they serve a double purpose, in the 
preservation of life and the expression of the feelings. 
An imitation of these natural acts as an occasional prac- 
tice will also be of great advantage to the student, not 
only as serving to assist art but to invigorate nature. 

23. In the complicated web-work of diaphragm, abdom- 
inal, chest, clavicular, dorsal, and other muscles which 
serve as the motive power for respiration in its various 
forms and degrees, from tranquil to violent, and in con- 
tinued or disjointed currents of breath, the will, by a sep- 
arate volition, can not properly produce any individual 
action on the part of any particular set of muscles inde- 
pendently or in advance of any other set involved in the 
general act. They must all work together by a combined 



Mechanism of the Voice. 25 

action involving the separate agencies in an almost con- 
sentaneous movement for one general result. The same is 
true of the complex organic action by which the breath is 
converted into syllabic sound, involving the further agency 
of the muscles of the glottis, etc. 

To enforce this idea by an example : the direction is 
sometimes given to "hold the chest up" by a special act 
of volition, in order to enlarge its cavity for the indraughts 
of air. The effort to do this burdens the mind with an 
unnecessary precaution, and lessens the powers of vocal 
production. The act of raising the shoulders, therefore, 
drawing up the chest, and subsequently dropping them, in 
the forcible utterance of speech, is an unnatural and in- 
jurious habit, arising from this false idea of assisting 
nature, by a special effort of the will, to control any one 
of the co-ordinated actions of her complete mechanism.* 
v But those habits of breathing and speech, based upon a 
practice by which the organs are exercised in their normal 
functions, will call into proper action all the necessary 
agencies of sound production, and develop the vocal 
powers in accordance with natural law. The will must be 
exerted with the object of producing certain effects or sounds 
of a certain kind, and for an explicit purpose; and the 
diaphragm, the abdominal muscles, the intercostals, and 
others, will, by the sympathetic action of which we have 
spoken, conjointly and efficiently supply the necessary 
motive power, no one set of these muscles waiting for or 
requiring a special act of volition to cause it to perform its 
individual office in the general act. 



* Lennox Brown .has recently written a treatise on voice produc- 
tion, in which he draws particular attention to the false methods 
of breathing, used in many of the music schools, and proves con- 
clusively that the diaphragmatic or deep breathing is the only 
form that is satisfactory in its results. 
M. E— 3. 



26 Murdoch's Elocution. 

24. I would recommend, in connection with breathing, 
some particular exercises in walking, pacing, striding, and 
running. Also, using the arms in all the movements from 
graceful to forcible; i. e., from sweeps to direct strokes, 
upward and downward, with varying degrees of force. 
The movements should be in accordance with the swell 
and stroke of vocal action in expulsion, explosion, and 
effusion, voice and action keeping time together. 



Chapter III. 
Pitch. 

25. The most elementary knowledge of music will serve 
to explain the technical terms common to this science, and 
that of speech, and also to aid the student to an under- 
standing of the similarities and differences of their applica- 
tion in each, necessary to a correct apprehension of their 
employment in the latter. 

In the musical scale, the progressions or variations 
through pitch are effected by a series of skipping or dis- 
connected sounds, called discrete intervals, which may be 
individually prolonged at will upon a level line; i. e., at 
one point of the scale, the sound neither rising nor falling 
in pitch. 

On the scale, the intervals between the first and second, 
second and third, fourth and fifth, fifth and sixth sounds 
are full tones. The distances between the third and 
fourth, seventh and eighth, are half-tones, or semitones. 
The intervals take their degree from these changes in the 
position of the notes, thus : from the first to the third, or 
from c to e, on the piano-forte, is a discrete interval of 
a third. 

But variation in pitch may be produced in another way; 
e. g., if the finger be moved with continued pressure along 
the string of a violin, from its lower attachment, upward 
or downward, while the bow is drawn, a mewing sound will 
be heard. The sound thus produced will be continuous, 
and will end at cither a higher or lower pitch than that at 

(27) 



28 Murdoch } s Elocution. 

which it began, according as the finger is slid upward or 
downward. The effect upon the ear will be that of an 
uninterrupted sound, gliding from gravity to acuteness, or 
the reverse. This, on the violin, is called a slide, and is 
produced by a succession of changes in pitch so rapid as 
not to be separately discerned by the ear, and hence the 
result of one unbroken impulse of sound. 

In the speaking voice, change of pitch, in the manner 
just described, is effected in the utterance of every syllable 
through some interval of the scale, and called a concrete 
interval.* 

26. The speaking voice performs both the concrete and 
discrete transitions in pitch, the latter being as inseparable 
from any succession of syllabic sounds as the former from 
any individual utterance. To illustrate this : Suppose the 
pronoun / be given with earnest interrogation, expressing 
strong surprise, and it would pass through the rising con- 
crete interval of probably eight notes of the musical scale. 
Then let the word fail be given immediately after the /, 
with the same interrogative surprise, though less earnestly 
than the first, and beginning at the same degree of the 
scale, and it will pass through the rising concrete of prob- 
ably a fifth. Thus, we have an interrogative sentence. 
The voice, in passing from the termination of the first 
word to the commencement of the second must of ne- 
cessity perform a skip or a discrete transition through an 
octave. A more advanced study of the subject will show 
us that this discrete movement, in the successive syllabic 
utterances of speech, is made either through proximate or 
(as in the instance given) through remote intervals. 



*The term Concrete, etymologically considered, means grown to- 
gether. The term Discrete is derived from dis and CERNO, to see 
apart, or to distinguish. 



Pitch. 29 

If the sentence, "I am poor, and miserably old," be 
uttered with a plaintive expression, the syllabic utterances 
will pass through a semitone. 

27. There is in speech still another mode of discrete 
transition through the degrees of pitch, produced by the 
voice passing discretely from acuteness to gravity, and the 
reverse, by intervals much smaller than a semitone, each 
point being touched by abrupt emissions of voice, follow- 
ing each other in rapid succession. The extent of the 
interval contained between these brief and rapid iterations 
is not known, nor is it important that it should be. The 
sound is well illustrated by the neighing of a horse, or by 
gurgling in the throat, and is called the Tremulous Scale 
of the Voice, or the Tremor. 

The speaking scale progressing principally by whole 
tones, and not being limited, as in music, to the arrange- 
ment of tones and semitones, may be regarded as the com- 
pass of the voice, be that eight, twelve, sixteen, or more 
degrees. As the peculiarity of key arises from the fixed 
place of semitones, there can be, in the transitions of 
speech-melody through this scale of pitch, no change of 
key, and hence no modulation. This term modulation has 
been, and still is, popularly misapplied to denote the transi- 
tions of voice through the speaking scale, but must be 
rejected from an accurate treatment of the subject of 
speaking sounds. 

(1) Pitch is, then, a term representing any variation of 
the voice from gravity to acuteness. 

(2) There are, in the use of speech-sounds, two kinds 
of transition in pitch : concrete, by a continuous or uninter- 
rupted movement; and discrete, by a skipping or discon- 
nected movement. 

(3) Speech has four scales or modes of progression in 
pitch : the diatonic, the concrete, the tremulous, and the semi- 
tonic, known in music as the chromatic. 



30 MurdocJi s Elocution. 

(4) Intervals mark the distance between any two degrees 
of these scales, and are either concrete or discrete. 

(5) Intonation in speech is the correct execution of the 
intervals of its several scales, and constitutes one of the 
chief elements of expression in spoken language. 

(6) Melody of speech is an agreeable variation of these 
intervals on the successive syllables of language. 

28. Science teaches that acuteness and gravity are the 
results of tension and relaxation, and consequently of 
rapid and slow vibration of the vocal chords attendant 
respectively upon the elevation and depression of the 
larynx. 

The larynx rises and the fauces contract in the utter- 
ance of acute sounds; the fauces dilate and the larynx 
falls with the grave. The natural position for the produc- 
tion of high pitch elevates the chin slightly, low pitch 
depresses it, and in middle pitch the position is that of 
simple repose. We also study pitch in the five degrees 
of middle, low and lowest, high and highest. 



Chapter IV. 

The Concrete Movement or the Radical and Vanish. 

29. In the simple pronunciation of the letter a, two 
sounds are heard : the first has the nominal sound of the 
letter, and issues from the organs with a certain degree of 
fullness; the last is the element e, gradually diminishing to 
an attenuated close. In the utterance, the voice will trav- 
erse a rising interval of a tone or second. 

The first part of the interval, in this instance, is called 
the radical movement, as the fullness of its opening is the 
root from which the remaining concrete proceeds; the 
latter, or gradual diminution of the sound, is called the 
vanishing movement^ from its seeming to die away into 
silence. These terms apply only to the two extremes of 
the concrete, for the radical changes into the vanish so 
gradually as to admit of no assignable point of distinction 
between them. The entire concrete, comprehending the 
two movements continuously blended together, is called 
the radical and vanishing movement, and sometimes the note 
of speech. The character of this radical and vanishing 
movement is represented to the eye by the visible mark of 
notation, [^^]» which will be used in the course of this 
work. 

30. It is somewhat difficult to recognize the radical and 
vanish on the interval of the tone, but in order to render 
this movement appreciable to the ear we must magnify it. 
Pronounce the letter a as a question of surprise, in the fol- 
lowing sentence: ''Did you say a?" and its dipthongal 

(31) 



Murdoch ' s Elocution. 



character, with the radical and vanish of its opening and 
termination, will be clearly exhibited on the extended 
interval of the rising fifth or octave. Utter the same letter 
with positive affirmation, as, "I said #," and the same 
effect of fullness and diminution will be produced on a fall- 
ing concrete, with the radical at the summit of the sound, 
and the vanish attenuating downward. 

This simple utterance of the radical and vanish seems to 
be an instinctive and uncontrollable function of the speak- 
ing voice underlying all syllabic utterance. 

In the correct execution of the utterance a, as given 
above, the student must be conscious of a peculiar sensa- 
tion felt in the larynx or its mouth, which is the glottis, at 
the moment in which the radical sound is expelled from 
that organ, and before it becomes blended with the fainter 
vocality of the vanish. From the inception of the vocal 
effort, the organs move from one position, at the opening 
of the given sound, to another at its close; i. e., they glide 
from an open position on the fullness of the a, to a com- 
paratively close position on the vanishing e. 

31. From this it will be seen that the radical and vanish- 
ing movement is the result of one impulse of the breath, 
and is the basis of the syllabic structure. The transit of 
vocal sound and action, as in the example just given, con- 
stitute the peculiar character of the speech-note as distin- 
guished from that of song. 

The long drawn notes of song and recitative are of an 
entirely different character, the voice being prolonged upon 
a level line of pitch by holding the organs in one position 
until the close of the note. 

If the dipthongal vowel a, or any other capable of pro- 
longation, be uttered with correct pronunciation, smoothly 
and distinctly, without intensity or emotion, or with only a 
moderate degree of earnestness, it commences full and 
somewhat abruptly, and gradually decreases in its upward 



77/e Concrete Movement. 33 

or downward movement until it becomes inaudible; having 
the increments of time, and rise or descent, and the decre- 
ments of fullness equally progressive, the two sounds which 
compose it, the radical movement and the vanish, blend- 
ing imperceptibly together as a result of the peculiar action 
of the organs. This is called the equable concrete, and be- 
longs only to speech. This full opening, equable gliding, 
the lessening volume, and the soft extinction of sound, 
mark the difference between the equable concrete of the 
speaking voice, and the sounds of all musical instruments. 
The concrete is carried in speech through the intervals of 
the tone, semitone, third, fifth, and octave. The voice 
may also pass through the remaining intervals, the fourth, 
sixth, and seventh, or beyond the octave ; but a reference 
to the third, fifth, and octave as the wider intervals em- 
ployed in speech is sufficiently accurate for an efficient 
study of our subject. 

32. Under the influence of emotion, the concrete move- 
ment loses its simple, equable form, which is the vocal sign 
of a more or less tranquil state of mind, and, according to 
the kind and degree of the emotion, a corresponding con- 
centration of force is applied to some part or to all of its 
extent; thus, we have the phenomena of stress. Of this, 
we have six different forms : 

(1) Radical Stress, or force applied to the opening of 
the concrete.* 



* Radical stress, in its simplest or lightest form, exists in the 
equable concrete, constituting the clear, full opening of the former. 
It only becomes a vocal sign of emotion by explosive force on this 
opening of the syllabic impulse. The radical is the only form of 
stress that may be inexpressive in its character. This point will 
be fully explained in our practical consideration of the subject; it 
is mentioned in this connection to avoid what might seem to be a 
contradiction. 



34 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

(2) The Loud Concrete, in which the whole equable con- 
crete is magnified by unusual force, while the proportion 
of the radical to the vanish remains unaltered. 

(3) Medium Stress, a swell or impressive fullness on the 
middle of the concrete. 

(4) Compound Stress, an unusual application of force to 
each extremity of the concrete. 

(5) Final Stress, force applied to the latter extremity of 
the concrete, while the radical is diminished in fullness. 

(6) Thorough Stress, in which the concrete has the full- 
ness and force of the radical throughout its entire extent. 

The forms of stress will be further described, and their 
application illustrated, in our practical studies on the con- 
crete. 

The plain, equable structure of the radical and vanish 
will be called the simple concrete, to distinguish it from the 
concrete affected by the various modifications of force com- 
prehended in the several forms of stress. 

33. Besides the forms of the rising and falling concrete, 
the voice often continues the rising into the falling con- 
crete by a single impulse of sound, thus doubling its 
extent. Again, the falling may in the same way be con- 
tinued into the rising movement. This form of the radical 
and vanishing movement is called the Wave, and the inter- 
vals of which it is composed are called its constituents or 
flexures. 

The following diagrams illustrate, by graphic means, the 
various concrete intervals and waves. The wave is em- 
ployed through all the intervals of the scale, and in all 
possible combinations; and, furthermore, its expression, in 
all its forms, is modified by the application of stress to 
different parts of its course, at the beginning, or at the 
end, or the junction of its constituents. 

The wave is the vehicle for syllabic quantity in its most 
extended forms. 



The Concrete Movement. 



35 



Concrete Intervals and Waves. 



0- i =?==* 



Concrete risinj 
tone. 



Concrete down- 
ward tone. 



Concrete rising 
third. 



Concrete down- 
ward third. 



^ 



2 



Concrete rising 
fifth. 



Concrete down- 
ward fifth. 



Concrete rising 
octave. 



Concrete down- 
ward octave. 



E*3£? 



Equal single Equal single Equal single Equal single Equal single Equal single 

direct, wave inverted, of direct, of the inverted, of direct, of the inverted, of 

of the sec- the second, third. the third. fifth. the fifth, 
ond. 



^fe^^ 



*sz 



^ 



Equal single Equal single Unequal sin- Unequal in- Double equal Double un- 
direct, of the inverted, of gle direct, of verted, of the direct, of the equal invert- 
octave, the octave, the fifth and third and oc- third. ed, of the 
third. tave. third, fifth, 

and third. 



The following symbols are used to represent to the eye 
the concrete as affected by the different modifications of 
stress through all the intervals. 



36 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Forms of Stress on the Concrete. 



J M ! T I 



34. The pitch at which the concrete begins will be called 
Radical Pitch, to distinguish it from that of the entire 
radical and vanish, which will be called Concrete Pitch. 

The concrete function is sometimes called the radical and 
vanishing movement ; the concrete movement, progression, in- 
terval, or pitch; or, simply, the Concrete or the Radical and 
Vanish. The discrete function is called the discrete move- 
ment, progression, change, skip, or pitch. Where the 
direction of the concrete or the radical is not specified or 
implied, the term is used either for rise or fall. As a gen- 
eral designation of the extent of intervals and waves, all 
greater than those of the semitones and second are termed 
wider intervals and waves. The term radical and vanish, 
when generically employed, refers to the combination of 
beginning and terminal part of the concrete under any 
modification of either of these parts. 

35. Every syllable of speech being a single impulse of 
utterance, involves the radical and vanish as a necessity of 
its organic production. The concrete is, therefore, the 
soul of the syllabic sound, and forms the working material 
for all the purposes of articulation and intonation. It 
must have some point of commencement on the scale, and 
traverse some interval; it must occupy some time in the 
utterance ; it must also be uttered with some degree of 
muscular effort, and hence of force; and, last, it must 
have quality, or some peculiar kind of sound. The con- 
crete function is the foundation upon which is built the 



77/e Concrete Movement. 37 

measurement of all the sounds of speech, and is the prin- 
ciple which underlies the life and power of every utter- 
ance of the speaking voice, from the most delicate audible 
whisper, to the accumulated forces of the loudest and 
most prolonged shout within the capabilities of the vocal 
mechanism. // is the key which unlocks the whole philosophy 
of the speaking voice. A theoretical and practical under- 
standing of this great fundamental principle of spoken 
language not only develops the full powers of the voice, 
but gives control over it for the effective and natural 
utterances of language. 



Chapter V. 

The Elements of the Language Considered and Classified ac- 
cording to their Relation to the Radical and Vanish, and 
to their Capacity for Tunable Sound. 

36. An elementary sound in language is one that is in- 
capable of further division. It is uttered by one impulse 
of the organs, and is the simplest form of articulate utter- 
ance. 

As the alphabet of our language does not contain a 
separate symbol for each of these elements, we are obliged 
to use the same graphic sign for different sounds. 

The elements are divided with reference to their relation 
to the radical and vanish, and their capacity for tunable 
sound into tonics, subtonics, and atonies. 

Table of Tonic Elements. 



Simple Sounds. 


Compound Sounds 


A-ll, E-rr, 


A-le, 


A-rm, E-nd, 


I-ce, 


A-n, I-n, 


O-ld, 


A-sk, Ai-r, 


Ou-r, 


E-ve, U-p, 


Oi-1, 


Oo-ze, O-r, 


U-se. 


L-oo-k, O-n. 





The tonic elements have the purest and most tunable 
vocality of all the materials of speech. They are capable 
of being prolonged indefinitely, and admit of the concrete 
rise and fall through all the intervals of pitch. They may 

(38) 



The Elements of Language. 39 

be uttered with more force and abruptness than the other 
elements, and at the same time, from their power of pro- 
longation, may preserve the gradually attenuated move- 
ment of the vanish.* 

37. All of the tonic sounds are produced by the joint 
functions of the larynx, fauces, and parts of the internal 
and external mouth. Although produced in the larynx by 
the action of the vocal chords, the ultimate perfection of 
every tonic sound depends upon the correct position of the 
lips and tongue. The lower jaw also facilitates their utter- 
ance by its motions, and the consequent modifications of 
the cavity of the mouth. 

The lips, by their approximation, diminish the size of 
the external opening of the mouth; and the tongue, by its 
elevation toward the roof of the mouth, that of the cavity 
or internal opening. The individual vocal character of 
each tonic is thus principally determined by one of these 
two agencies. 

38. Those tonics which are modified chiefly by the 
agency of the lips have been called, from this circum- 
stance, the "labial vowels." They are: «-ll, <?-ld, ou-r f 
00-ze, o-n. They have an enlarged interior opening or 
passage for the sound produced by a greater or less de- 
pression of the tongue at the root, the lower jaw and 
larynx being simultaneously and proportionately lowered. 
Their peculiar mechanism gives to these sounds a grave 
and somber, or solemn character, producing also a sorrow- 
ful and gloomy expression of the face. 



* Under the usual division, the tonics are called vmvels, and the 
remaining elements consonants. The present nomenclature is 
adopted by Dr. Rush, not as designing " to overlook or destroy 
arrangements truly representing the relationships of these sounds, 
but to add to their history a division grounded on their important 
functions in intonation." 



40 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

39. The tonics a-rm, a-\e, /-sle, z'-n, *?-rr, ^-nd, ee-\, 
are those modified chiefly by changes of position in the 
tongue, and have thence been called the "lingual vowels." 
In their formation, the tongue rises in varying degrees, 
from its natural position of rest toward the roof of the 
mouth, thus diminishing in proportion to this elevation the 
size of the oral cavity; at the same time, the external or 
labial opening is laterally elongated. They have a sprightly 
or brilliant vocal character, and are associated with a crisp 
and smiling expression of the countenance.* 

40. A, in 0—II, is the sound produced by the lowest posi- 
tion of the larynx, and consequently greatest depression of 
the base of the tongue, which is slightly grooved, and 
the lowest position of the jaw, the cavity of the mouth 
being more open posteriorly than in any of the other 
tonics of this class. This sound, in consequence, has 
greater depth and breadth than any of the tonics, rever- 
berating in the cavernous parts of the throat and in the 
thoracic cavity. 

41. A, in rt-rm, is formed by a higher position of the 
larynx, and the sound is projected farther forward than in 
the preceding, and strikes against the anterior part of the 
hard palate, or roof of the mouth, ringing through the 
head and reverberating through the chest about equally. 
It is also accompanied by a freer opening of the mouth, 
both externally and internally, than exists in the formation 
of any other of the lingual class of tonics, the tongue, arch- 
ing slightly at the back, lies on a level with the teeth in 
the forward part of the mouth, while the labial aperture is 
well expanded, producing the most resonant and brilliant 
of the tonic sounds. 



* Observe the different expressions of the face in uttering the 
words smile and frown, when given with vocal expression, echoing 
the sense in each case; or, the words bright and gloom. 



The Elements of La nonage. 41 

42. The sounds of 00 and ee are the least full and reso- 
nant in their vocal character, having what may be termed 
a veiled or woody sound; this will be explained by their 
peculiar mechanism. In the former, the sound is thrown 
almost against the teeth and lips nearly closed, while in ee 
the internal passage for the sound is almost obstructed by 
the elevation of the tongue. A slightly closer position of 
the lips in one, and of the teeth in the other, will convert 
these sounds, through the occlusion, respectively into the 
subtonic vocalities of w-oe and y-e. 

43. With the aid of these suggestions, the student may 
easily observe for himself the individual vocality and 
organic formation of the labial sounds intermediate be- 
tween a-\\ and oo-ze, and of the lingual between a-vm 
and ee-\. 

The gliding concrete movement of speech necessitates a 
change from the open position of the external organs on 
the radical, to a closer position at its close on the vanish, 
so that no single position is held for any length of time. 
The natural action itself must be closely observed, aided by 
judicious suggestions as to its correctness, or illustrated by 
a competent teacher, rather than followed from pictured 
models or from mere graphic descriptions. See ^[30. 

44. In deliberate utterance, the organic action is much 
more positive than in hasty speech. The varying positions 
of the lips, tongue, and jaw in the formation of the tonic 
sounds should be first practiced before a mirror until the 
natural and unconstrained action of the visible organs, in 
the correct and deliberate enunciation of each, is observed 
and confirmed. 

In all practice on these elements, great care should be 
taken not to use any undue action of the lips, particularly 
on 0, 00, and ou, as their slow or energetic utterance is 
very apt, at first, to be accompanied by protrusion of these 
organs, which constitutes the fault of mouthing. 

M. E.— 4. 



42 Murdoch's Elocutioii. 

In the correct production of the concrete of speech the 
jaw acts vertically. Any tendency to work it laterally, 
(which is sometimes the fault of overeagerness to give the 
tonic its full vocal value), will also produce an unnatural 
utterance, akin to mouthing, and should be carefully 
guarded against in the first practice. 

45. In illustrating the concrete movement of the tonic a, 
it was stated that this element has its radical or opening 
upon a, and its vanish upon e. Six more of the tonics 
have, in like manner, different sounds for the two extremes 
of the concrete. As this coalescence of two tonic sounds 
is called a diphthong, we have seven proper diphthongs 
among the tonic elements. These are: 

A, as in awe, which has its vanish in the short sound of 
e, in err. 

A, in art, whose vanish is on e, in err. 

A, as in ale, vanishes, as already stated, upon the sound 
of e, as in eel. 

I, as in ice, has its vanish upon e, in eel. 

O, as in old, glides into and vanishes upon 00, as in 
ooze. 

Ou, as in our, also vanishes upon the sound of 00, in 
ooze. 

Oi, as in oi-\ or v-oi-ce, may be added to the dip- 
thongal tonics (making eight in all), though it is more 
properly a tripthong composed of a— we, <?-rr, and ce-\. 
When the element is short, however, it is dipthongal, com- 
posed of a-we and i-n. 

Five of the tonics: e as in eel; 00, as in ooze; e, as in 
err; e, as in end; and i, as in in, continue the same 
throughout the radical and vanish, and are true mono- 
thongs. 

46. The elements of the second class are formed, like 
the tonics, in the larynx; but are modified, in various 
ways, by their passage through the external orifices, re^r- 



The Elements of Language. 



43 



berating in the mouth, fauces, and cavities of the nose. 
They also possess the properties of vocality and prolonga- 
tion, though in both are inferior to the tonics, and are 
called subtonic sounds. Each tonic has a vocality peculiar 
to itself. That of the subtonics is much alike in all, and 
is known as the "vocal murmur." They are fifteen in 
number, and are as follows: 



Table of Subtonic Elements. 



b, as 


in d-abe. 


th, 


as in 


///-en. 


d, ' 


d-id. 


z, 


(i 


a-z-ure 


£, ' 


g-ig- 


ng % 


" 


S\-7lg. 


V, 


z^-alve. 


I, 


<« 


/-ull. 


z, 


2-one. 


m, 


<< 


7«-aim. 


y, 


>'-e. 


n, 


" 


«-un. 


w, ' 


w-oe. 


r, 


" 


r-ap. 






r, 


< ( 


fa-r. 



Let the student take the word babe, and pause after the 
obscure "guttural murmur" (the term applied to the pe- 
culiar murmur of b, d, and g) of its first sound, and he 
will hear the element which the letter b represents, or if he 
prolong the first element before joining it to the next, the 
single elementary subtonic sound will be heard in the pro- 
longation. Let him proceed in the same manner to obtain 
the sound of the other subtonic elements. 

These elements may all be carried through the different 
intervals of pitch, but they have almost no radical fullness, 
and, as has been stated, a less full vocality than the tonics. 
They are produced by the entire or partial obstruction of 
a current of vocalized breath through the mouth, and the 
subsequent removal of this obstruction. 

The restoration of the free passage of air through the 
mouth at the termination of the subtonic utterance, pro- 



44 Murdoch's Elocution. 

duces a peculiar ending, known as the vocide or "little 
voice," which, though short and feeble in ordinary speech, 
becomes very perceptible in forcible or affected pronuncia- 
tion. This must not be confounded with the vanish of the 
concrete. The slow but forcible pronunciation of such 
words as bad, hub, tug, rub, etc., will illustrate this vocular 
termination. This vocule is lost when the subtonic pre- 
cedes a tonic element, and the voice takes in its place the 
full radical sound of the tonic, thus giving an abrupt 
opening to the latter. 

47. The subtonic can not be given an abrupt opening 
without extraordinary effort. As elements they are, there- 
fore, deprived of the proper radical movement which is 
peculiar to the tonics. But, although the subtonics are 
unfitted for the abrupt opening of the radical, they may 
fulfill all the purposes of the vanish. The vocality of the 
subtonics admits of their prolongation, and an extension of 
their time is next in importance to that of the vowels for the 
purposes of elegance and correctness in speech. Though less 
tunable than the vowels, they are most agreeable to the 
ear when properly uttered with their full value. 

48. Ten of the elemental sounds of our language are 
aspirations, and form the third class. They are produced 
by certain modifications of the internal and external mouth 
acting upon a current of the whispering breath. They 
have no vocality, and therefore no basis for the function 
of the radical and vanish. 



Table of Atonic Elements. 



A 


as in 


p-ipe. 


s, 


as in 


j-ick. 


t, 


(< 


t-ent. 


wh, 


< < 


7<:'//-eat. 


k, 


<( 


£-ick. 


th, 


« < 


///-in. 


f, 


1 1 


/-ife. 


sh, 


c« 


pu-s/i. 


h, 


c < 


/i-e. 


ch, 


<< 


c/i-urcb. 



77/c Elements of Language. 45 

These elements, from their want of vocal sound, are 
called Atonies. The want of vocality in the atonies is 
almost the only difference between them and the sulfonics, 
as is shown by the following table : 



B, 


A 


G, 


V t 


z, 


Y, 


W % 


Th. 


P> 


T, 


K 


F, 


s, 


H, • 


1 1 'n, 


Th. 



49. Six of the whole number of elements, or three sub- 
tonics and three atonies, are produced by a bursting forth 
of the breath after a complete occlusion. These abrupt 
elements are b, d, g, p, t, k. They exhibit their final 
vocule very perceptibly at the end of a syllable, but before 
a tonic this vocule opens out, as before described, into a 
sudden fullness of the radical of the tonic sound, as in 
bare, go, dart, pit, take, kick. 

50. The subtonics and atonic elements are divided ac- 
cording to the organic conditions of their formation into 
the following classes : labials, or those formed chiefly by 
the agency of the lips ; dentals, by that of the teeth ; palatic, 
or those depending on the palate for their distinctive char- 
acter ; nasals, or those resulting from a vocalized breathing 
through the nose; Unguals, or those especially dependent 
on the action of the tongue; aspirates, formed by a forci- 
ble emission of breath through the moderately open organs; 
and labio-dentals, depending upon teeth and lips. 

The dental sounds are as follows : </-id, /-ent, ///-in, 
M—ine, a-s-ure, push, r-ease, s-one. 
The palatic : £-ick, £-ag, y-e, <r-ake. 
The nasals: n-un, si-ng. 
The Unguals : /— ull, r— ap, fa-r. 
The labio-dentals : z'-alve, f-\fe. 
The labials : ;;/-aim, b-ahe, /-ipe, w-oe. 



Chapter VI. 

Production of To7iic Sounds. 

51. The organic action in the utterance of the tonic 
sounds at the seat of their production in the larynx next 
claims attention. 

The speaking voice, like the singing voice, is either 
made or marred in the very outset of practice. Unless 
the first idea is minutely and correctly given and confirmed 
by constant and undeviating practice, and the mechanical 
agency irrevocably fixed, the vocality will in most cases be 
imperfectly formed. Yet, upon this original understanding 
and conformation of the organs, all the after structure of 
artistic speech depends. 

In the first place, the production of what is called 
natural voice, or pure resonant vocality, principally de- 
pends for its clearness, fullness, and carrying power upon 
the manner in which these tonic sounds are first uttered in 
practice. This must, therefore, be our primary considera- 
tion in the study of a correct and effective articulation of 
the elements. 

Previous to the production of all of the tonic elements 
with any degree of precision and clearness of sound, there 
is a drawing in of the breath (an act preparatory to every 
effort of the animal organism), followed by an occlusion in 
the larynx, caused by a slight clutch of the glottis and epi- 
glottis, which shuts off the outflow of air. This resistance 
is overcome by a slight action of the diaphragm, which 
drives the volume of air thus barred against the vocal 
(46) 



Production of Tonic Sounds. 47 

chords. These, in their separation, vibrate, and produce 
sound, and this sound is modified in its passage outward, 
by the external agencies, into its distinctive character as a 
vowel or tonic. 

In the clear opening of the sound attendant upon a 
slightly forcible separation of the parts, we have abrupt- 
ness or radical stress in its lightest form. By the same 
process, with added depth of indraught and muscular 
force in overcoming the stronger resistance of the occlu- 
sion of the orifice for breathing, this opening of the sound 
may be increased to a strong explosion. This result 
should be the last acquired. 

52. It is of great importance that this fundamental prin- 
ciple of the speaking voice should be understood at the 
very outset. I shall, therefore, show, by means of a 
simple experiment, how this most perfect means of sound- 
ing a tonic element is obtained. 

If the letter p be attached to a, and we wish to utter 
the syllable with some degree of abruptness, it will be 
necessary to press the lips together before the abrupt open- 
ing takes place by which the / receives its aspirated force, 
and breaks into the vocality of a. It will be perceived 
that the abruptness and force of the first element depends 
altogether upon the firmness with which the lips are com- 
pressed, and the resistance of air collected in the mouth. 

Now, let the a be sounded by itself, with the intent of 
giving it a clear, full opening. In this case, we feel a 
kind of shutting up of the larynx, which will finally give 
way after a momentary resistance, and the sound will be 
abruptly expelled, the silence preceding the sound making 
its percussive effect the more remarkable. 

In the sentence, "I said apart, and not all," if we con- 
sider the visible operations of the organs of speech before 
and when we articulate the letter />, in part, and consider 
the fact that the resistance made by the lips while the 



48 Murdoch's Elocution. 

breath is accumulating for the explosion of the sound is 
identical with that made in the larynx under the same cir- 
cumstances upon the letter <z, in all, we will begin to 
realize the fact that the organs of voice, — the glottis and 
epiglottis, with other accessories, — exercise a similar action 
of occlusion in articulating the tonic elements as the lips, 
tongue, teeth, and palate in producing the abrupt elements 
b, d, g, k, p, t. Thus, the same action which takes place 
in the outer mouth in "Peter Piper picked a peck of 
pickled peppers," enables the inner mouth or glottis to 
give distinct articulation to "an old owl ate an ortolan in 
an old oak," the occlusion in both cases requiring an 
effort of the will, to be followed by immediate action on 
the part of the organs. 

In thus prefixing the p to a in the instance first given, 
we intend to exhibit the visible organic action preparatory 
to the abrupt utterance of the p, and thus to illustrate how 
a similar process of preparation and execution produces 
the same result in the unseen organs, in the production of 
the tonics or vowels, and thus to direct the attention to the 
fact that, while the lips, tongue, and teeth are prominent 
external' agents in articulation, and can be brought by 
practice into a finished and vigorous exercise of their func- 
tions, so the internal tone-producing organs are susceptible 
of like development, and in a still greater degree, on ac- 
count of the more numerous muscular agencies brought 
into play by their operations. 

53. We have another reason for attaching the p to the a 
in this experimental illustration. The syllable pa is more 
easily uttered with clearly defined abruptness by the un- 
practiced organs than the single tonic a, for the reason that 
the slight occlusive pause of the element /, with its conse- 
quent vocule, which breaks into the opening of the follow- 
ing tonic, gives abruptness to the radical of the latter. 
There must be a slight hiatus preceding the tonic to pro- 



Production of Tonic Sounds. 49 

duce this clear opening; e. g., the combination a-ow\ 
must, if the article be pronounced short and separately, 
with a pause after it, produce the necessary fullness of the 
radical, but the utterance is delayed; the union, however, 
of // with the tonic, or of any other subtonic, produces the 
occlusive pause, and we have the agreeable result, an owl. 
54. The forcible, as well as the clear and delicate rad- 
ical, is to be obtained only after patient practice. A 
power over this initial function of vocality will be best 
acquired by first imitating a short, natural cough, which 
perfectly illustrates the mechanical formation of the radical 
stress. It will be found that the cough is produced : 

(1) By inspiration. 

(2) By a closing of the glottis, and shutting off of the 
air, the action being quite perceptibly felt. 

(3) By the sudden giving way of this occlusion through 
the action of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles from 
below, which results in an abrupt vocality of one of the 
short tonics, mingled with aspiration, or, rather, followed 
by the atonic breathing //. In imitation of this natural 
process, let the student execute a mechanical cough by 
strong occlusion of the glottis, and subsequent expelling of 
the air, as if striving to get rid of some slight obstacle in 
the throat. This short, sudden action, will produce an 
abrupt vocality resembling e in err, or u in up. Let this 
be next uttered in the same abrupt manner, but freed from 
all huskiness or aspiration, and the explosive effect of the 
radical in pure vocality will be produced. To make this 
apparent, let the student cough out the u, in up, with 
aspiration, then with pure vocality, and then deliberately 
utter the elements ^-rr and u-p without the cough, and the 
result will be a clear, radical opening of the element. 
Great care should be taken to project the sound into the 
outer air, and not to allow it to be detained, as it were, in 
the mouth. 

M. E.--5. 



50 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 

The student should not proceed a step farther until able 
to execute this coughing exercise without the prompting of 
an exemplar, since its correct execution is the basis of the 
important function of radical stress, the abrupt initial of 
vocality, and of all the vocal gymnastics founded thereon. 

The cough should be executed with a very slight exer- 
tion of force in the beginning, as the delicate muscles of 
the glottis will suffer from at first attacking it with inju- 
dicious energy. 

55. I am aware that the use of the cough has been ob- 
jected to by singing teachers, and Lunn, in his excellent 
work upon the voice, has shown that Dr. Wylie, of Edin- 
burgh has, through scientific investigation, satisfactorily to 
himself and the scientific world, proved that perfect speech 
tones are produced by an explosion of condensed air, 
bursting from the ventricle of Morgagni lying between the 
true and faise chords of the glottis. His rule is to hold 
the breath, and then, by ceasing to withhold it, the explo- 
sion takes place. I am willing to accept and rejoice in all 
this in the light of progressive science, particularly as the 
point was left by Rush to the future decision of scientists. 
But at the same time, I adhere to my own convictions as 
to the efficacy of the cough, and as I know, from years of 
experience in training voices, that the cough, when prop- 
erly understood and used, can never be otherwise than a 
healthy practice of the organs. 

Dr. Rush (in his own case) proved that the coughing 
exercise is not only an admirable illustration of the action 
of the organs in correct tone production, but it is also one 
of the most useful exercises for developing the muscles 
governing respiration. 

56. When the student has clearly established in his mind 
the character and formation of this abrupt radical fullness 
by means of the cough, let him next utter all of the short 
tonic elements in Table of Tonics, ^[36, in pure vocality, 



Production of Tonic Sounds. 51 

alternating each with the coughed out form of their utter- 
ance as first given in the partly aspirated imitation of the 
natural cough. The latter should, in all elementary exer- 
cises on the radical stress, precede the practice on the 
vocal utterance, as it calls into more active play, and, 
therefore, exercises more effectively, the muscular agencies 
by which this initial function is produced. 

The short tonics are best adapted for the first practice in 
acquiring the initial of vocality, as they take on the abrupt- 
ness most readily, owing to their incapacity for extension 
in the concretes, the vanish being cut off, as it were, by 
the succeeding abrupt atonic or subtonic. 

When this table is satisfactorily executed, the student 
may pass to the syllables, and then to Table of Long 
Tonics, following the same order of proceeding as in this. 
The precise and forcible explosion of the elements and 
syllables, as here recommended, must not, therefore, be 
regarded as an element of correct articulation alone, but as 
a means to an end, — that end, the perfection of organic 
habit in taking the syllabic sounds, as the musician says of 
the notes, with that perfect accuracy and ease which gives 
life and beauty to all sustained utterance. This can only 
be gained by striking the intervals correctly with clear, 
discrete movement, as the note on the piano is struck, 
with light, elastic touch, and without feeling for it or creep- 
ing to it. 

57. The proper cultivation of the organs of speech in 
relation to the articulation, as well as the expressive forms 
of utterance, should involve a practice of the functions of 
aspiration as expressed in the articulated whisper. This 
form of whisper must be carefully distinguished from the 
shrill whistled or lip form; i. c, the manner of whispering 
used to arrest the attention of some one near the speaker. 
This form of whisper is of no use in voice culture, as it is 
formed only of that quantity of air which is quietly sup- 



52 Murdoch's Elocution. 

plied to the organs as in natural breathing, and without 
bringing into play the muscles necessary to the production 
of the speaking voice. 

The " articulated whisper" on the other hand, calls into 
action many muscular agencies not employed in the routine 
of conversational speech, as it is formed well back in the 
throat, and with the same mechanical action as when artic- 
ulating a vocality in the lowest pitch of the voice, but with 
a more forcible effort of utterance. It represents one of 
the most intensified forms of expression, as in extreme 
terror, warning, or fear. The difference between the for- 
mation of this whisper, and that which lies near the lips, 
may be illustrated by endeavoring to change from the 
latter to the low murmur of the voice as heard in the 
sound of moo, in imitation of a cow. 

The value of the articulated Avhisper, as an exercise for 
the development of the voice, will be enlarged upon in our 
special treatment of qualities of voice. The coughing and 
whispering processes, besides their uses as articulative 
exercises, are the basis for the development of one of the 
grandest qualities of the human voice, the orotund. 

58. The object is to so graduate the exercises as to 
thoroughly and gradually develop the entire powers of the 
organs of speech. The present uses of the articulative 
whisper as an articulative and gymnastic exercise may be 
summed up briefly as follows : 

(1) It is the first means of drawing attention to the 
glottic action, and thereby lowering the tones to the seat 
of action. 

(2) It introduces an incipient force into the vocal execu- 
tion. 

(3) It gives greater distinctness and precision, as a result 
of the preceding, to the articulation of sounds. 

All of the long and short tonic elements should, there- 
fore, be next given in the articulated whisper, with the 



Production of Tonic Sounds. 53 

same process of formation as that last described for the 
abrupt vocality. Next, let them be given in the same 
manner with half vocality, sometimes called the half whis- 
per. The scale of pitch in the whisper is much more 
limited than in vocality. The object here, however, 
should be to utter all of the whispered sounds in low 
pitch. 

The teacher may then introduce familiar sentences in the 
different forms of effusion, expulsion, and explosion in 
different degrees of force in whisper and half whisper, 
thus: 

EFFUSION. 

" Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 
Save when the beetle wheels his drony flight, 
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds." 

EXPULSION. 

Hush! Hark! I hear a noise. 
What is that? Stop! Listen! 

EXPLOSION. 

Begone ! Avaunt ! Hence ! Down ! 
"Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!" 

59. Let the order of practice then be as follows: 

(1) Cough out lightly, two or three times, the tonic 
elements, slightly increasing the force at each repetition. 

(2) Give them with the strong articulated whisper. 

(3) Give them with the half whisper or mixed aspira- 
tion and vocality. 

(4) Give them with abrupt opening of pure vocality, 
gradually increasing the force in successive repetitions 
until they are uttered with explosive abruptness, and clear, 
ringing vocality. 



54 Murdoch 's Elocution, 

The student must, however, exercise great care in this 
practice. There must, in the first place, be no rigidity or 
constriction in the parts, the organs being held with " flex- 
ible strength." Much of the clearness of the vocal sound 
produced will depend on this supple firmness with which 
the parts are held. If the partitions of the pharynx are 
rigid, and the muscles of the neck stiffened, the radical 
sound produced will be sharp and hard, instead of full and 
ringing. It must be remembered that the motor power is 
in the diaphragm, abdominal, and intercostal muscles. 

60. Radical stress is, then, susceptible of every degree of 
force, from a delicate precision or clear exactness of the 
radical opening of the sound, to moderate force, and from 
this to explosive violence. This may be illustrated by first 
imitating a violent cough, and then the slight hacking 
effort by which we clear the throat, giving distinct utter- 
ance to the short vowel sounds. 

It should be practiced, when its abrupt character is fully 
comprehended, from the lightest degree of force, or the 
utmost delicacy of touch, to the strongest exertion of the 
vocal mechanism. Too great care can not be exercised, 
however, in approaching gradually and judiciously exercis- 
ing the latter extreme of utterance. The tendency with 
many, in the beginning, is to cover a want of accuracy in 
the execution by the violent extremes of force. This 
should be strictly avoided. Let the voice at first be kept 
as low in pitch as possible, increasing the force at each 
repetition of the sound (without changing the pitch), from 
the lightest, easy opening of clear sound, to forcible ex- 
plosion.* 



* These two extremes of force may be severally likened, in their 
effect, to the light tick of a clock and the loud ringing stroke of 
the clapper of a great bell. 



Production of Tonic Sounds. 55 

In no respect is the voice more capable of Improve- 
ment than in regard to its force, yet while a careless and 
irregular employment of these exercises will be of but 
little service in developing the full powers of the voice, 
injudicious practice on them may produce permanent 
injury. Ten minutes spent in exploding the elements or 
syllabic combinations with undue force, and without care- 
ful regard to the correct use of the organs, may produce 
the very effects against which the student is seeking to 
fortify himself. 



Chapter VII. 

Exercises on the Tonic Elements. To Correctly Extend the 
Vanish of the Equable Concrete through the various Inter- 
vals and Waves. 

61. The former exercises, for the correct execution of 
the initial or radical part of the tonic elements, will de- 
velop the power and flexibility of the organs, and prepare 
them for the more delicate effects to be executed on the 
vanishing movement. An educated control over the latter 
gives a complete command of the entire concrete through 
its various degrees of extension. 

The long tonics are the elements of quantity, and are 
extendible to the utmost limit of piercing interrogation and 
all natural cries, through the rising and falling intervals, 
and the different forms of the wave. Hence their employ- 
ment on the extension of the concrete in the following 
tables. 

Tables of Notation. 



Exercises on 

Rising Seconds. 


the 
1 


Concrete Intervals. 

Falling Seconds. 










mf *f ^ if af mf ef 


€^^^^«^«^^ 


W w W 9 W W 9 




V, in ic/e. 
a', » ale. 
a 7 , ' ' ar'm. 
a', " all. 
e r , " e've. 
</, » c/ld. 
(56) 




a\ in a v le. 
e\ " e v ve. 
i\ " i v ce. 
o\ " oMd. 
a\ " aMl. 
oo v , " oo v ze. 



Exercises on the Ionic Elements, 



57 



62. Tabic I. — The interval of a second is represented 
first rising and then falling, repeated a number of times 
for the purpose of practice. Each of the long tonics 
should be given on this interval as indicated by the table, 
and afterwards the monosyllables in which they occur, the 
student taking care to give the radical with distinctness 
and to make the movement equable throughout 



II. 



Rising Thirds. 



Falling Thirds. 






Did you say a', 


in a'll? 


" " a', 


' ' aKm ? 


" " oc/, 


" oc/ze? 


" i', 


» is'le? 


<< e', 


" ee'l? 


« 0', 


« ryld? 


" oi', 


" oi'l? 



a\ 


in 


aMe. 


i\ 


" 


i v ce. 


e\ 


<< 


e v ve. 


ou\ 


" 


ou v r. 


a\ 


" 


a v rm. 


o\ 


<t 


oMd. 


oi\ 


" 


oi N l. 



63. Table IT extends the intervals a third, as in the 

interrogative, I' did it? Repeat the falling movement 

on the same interval of a third through elements and then 

words. 

III. 

Rising Fifths. Falling Fifths. 



JJJJJ 




oi', 


in 


oil. 


oo / , 


" 


oo'ze. 


e / , 


" 


e've. 


i', 


< ( 


i / ce. 


a', 


" 


ale. 


ou', 


" 


ou'r. 



a\ 


in 


ar N m 


a\ 


" 


aMl. 


i\ 


" 


isMe. 


e\ 


(< 


e v ve. 


o\ 


<< 


oMd. 



58 



Murdoch 's Elocution. 



64. Table III carries the voice through the more 
earnest interrogative movements of a rising fifth, and then 
falls on the same interval. 



IV. 



Rising Octaves. 



Falling Octaves. 




ggg 



65. Table IV extends the interval an octave upward, as 
it would pass in a piercing interrogation on the vowel 
sounds as given in the above tables. Then exercise 
the voice on the same interval with downward move- 
ment. 

66. The voice has now been made to traverse the inter- 
vals of speech : first, the simple second, through which 
the syllabic utterances of unimpassioned reading or speak- 
ing will be found to proceed; and, afterwards, through 
those more extended concretes, which are used to express 
interrogation, denial, surprise, command, and other more 
earnest states of the mind. 

In each exercise thus far, following the table of notation, 
the radical has opened upon the same line of pitch (which 
should, in the rising concretes, be at first several degrees 
below the middle), and the vanish has also terminated in 
the same manner, the voice proceeding from concrete to 
concrete by discrete steps. 

The student must next proceed to acquire greater com- 
mand over these concrete movements by exercising the 
rising and falling movements alternately. In this case, the 
radical of the downward concrete will open at the degree 
of pitch where the vanish of the upward concrete ends. 



Exercises on the Tonic Elements, 



59 



v. 



Rising and Falling Seconds. 



















^ ^ 


-^ 


*. tf 


* 






W 






This 


is a', as in aMl. 


This is 


V, as in isMe. 




' a', " ar N m. 




" 


o', 


" oMd. 




'a 7 , " a v n. 




«< 


oo', 


" oo v ze 




'a 7 , " aMe. 




< < 


ou/, 


" ou v r. 




' e' f 


" eeM. 




(i 


oi', 


" oi v l. 



67. The object of the exercise in Table V is to famil- 
iarize the student with the contrasted rising and falling 
movements of the voice, in uttering the tonic elements 
with their radical and vanish, as they would occur on the 
syllables of a simple sentence of complete sense, when 
uttered with distinctness, and as a deliberate, unimpas- 
sioned statement of facts. The extension of the sound 
in an upward direction will be readily observed on the 
elements, while the words containing the same tonic ele- 
ment will as clearly exhibit the falling radical and vanish. 

Let each element and word marked be given with a 
clear, full, radical opening, avoiding undue loudness or 
force, and then let the sound gradually diminish in 
volume until it is lost in the delicate vanish. 

In this, as in the following exercises of this chapter, 
there must be no application of force to the vanish ; no 
break or unsteadiness between the initial and final move- 
ment, but a sustained smoothness in the utterance, by 
which the radical and vanish are blended imperceptibly 
together. 

68. Pronounce the elements and words in the follow- 
ing table with a moderately forcible abruptness of the 



6o 



Murdoch } s Elocution. 



initial part, and prolong the sounds in the rising movement 
of an unimpassioned or unexcited interrogation until the 
delicate termination of the tonic is heard in the extreme 
vanish.* Next, allow it to fall through the same interval, 
in a tone of denial. The same elements and words can be 
used in the interval of the fifth, and afterwards in that of 
the octave. 

VI. 



Rising and Falling 
Thirds. 



Rising and Falling 
Fifths. 



Rising and Fallin 6 
Octaves. 



*W* 




a', 


of 


aMe. 


a 7 , 


of 


ar v m. 


r, 


of 


i v ce. 


a', 


I i 


ar v m. 


V, 


'< 


i v ce. 


a 7 , 


" 


ar v m. 


a', 


1 1 


a v ll. 


a', 


i t 


aMl. 


e', 


» 


e v ve. 


e', 


<( 


e v ve. 


e', 


" 


e v ve. 


o', 


I 1 


oMd. 


V, 


" 


i v ce. 


oo / , 


1 1 


oo v ze. 


ou / , 


4 i 


ou v r. 


oc/, 


" 


oo v ze. 


a', 


(< 


aMe. 


o', 


(< 


or\ 


oc/, 


" 


loo v k. 


ou', 


i « 


ou v r. 


a', 


i ( 


aMe. 


Ou', 


( ( 


ouV. 


oi', 


" 


oiM. 


oo', 


" 


oo v ze 



The exercises may be varied; e. g., a' — a N — ar'm — ar N m; 
i' — i v — i'ce — i v ce. First in seconds, then in thirds, fifths, 
and octaves, until the ear of the pupil can execute and 
recognize the rising and falling movements himself. 

The tables of tonic sounds are the easiest to execute; 
but after the organs are rendered pliant on these, the 
subtonics should be practiced in the same manner. 



* A very common error in uttering the dipthongal tonics is, to 
use the words of Prof. William Russell, that of "giving this com- 
plex sound in a manner too analytical; as, fai-eel, fai-eeih, etc." 
This overnicety must be carefully avoided, especially in the exer- 
cise in prolonging these sounds. 



Exercises on the Tonic Elements, 61 

69. Let the questions of the preceding table be next 
uttered as a gently complaining or plaintive inquiry, and 
the interrogative elements and words will pass through the 
interval of a rising semitone. No notation of this interval 
is given in the tables of notation. It would be similar to 
that of the second, but of only half the extent. It is an 
interval quickly recognized from its plaintive character, 
and should be practiced on all of the tonic elements, both 
rising and falling, similarly to the other intervals. 

70. Let all the exercises on the tables be given, also, 
with the articulated whisper, and then with the half whis- 
per, alternating these with the pure vocality. This exercise 
of the articulated whisper can not be too highly regarded 
in this connexion, as, in addition to its uses already men- 
tioned, it is one of the best means for acquiring a control 
over the correct extension or effusion of the vanish. 

Breathing. — A short breath should be taken at the com- 
mencement of each line or half line in the tables, or 
before the elements or words having the extension on the 
concretes, according as the energy or duration of utterance 
may create a greater waste. The organic position prepar- 
atory to uttering all of the open vowel sounds always affords 
an opportunity to replenish the breath with perfect ease 
and without apparent effort. To quickly draw in a small 
supply of breath before such sounds, when single or as the 
initial of words, in the course of a sentence, should be 
observed as a general rule of all practice. After each 
repetition of the entire table let the lungs be refilled by a 
deep inspiration. 

71. It will be found that the upward movement of the 
radical and vanish is much more easy of execution than 
the downward. Much practice, therefore, should be given 
to the latter, observing the efficiency of the moderately 
forcible radical in giving directness and positiveness of 
effect to the prolonged descent of the voice. To be able 



62 Murdoch's Elocution. 

to carry the long downward concretes slowly through their 
wide extent of interval with a proper degree of firmness, 
equable diminution, and delicate extinction of sound, is 
one of the most difficult accomplishments of cultiva- 
tion. 

The weight of the voice, it must be remembered, in the 
wide falling concretes, should descend like a heavy blow, 
and not like a ball that rebounds; i. e., steadily, directly, 
and forcibly, with no return upon itself, or jerking back at 
the end. 

This full opening and final vanish of the perfectly exe- 
cuted equable concrete is an attribute no less beautiful, 
than imperatively necessary, to elegant, or even simply 
correct, speech. It requires constant practice of the 
organs to produce the clearness of the radical, the move- 
ment directly upward or downward, and the diminishing 
volume, gradual and equable, which, in its delicacy, 
"knits sound to silence." In the delicate, smooth effu- 
sions of sound, lie all the graces of speech. 

72. The delicate character of the vanish renders the 
exact measurement of the intervals a matter of difficulty 
to the beginner. This, therefore, should be determined 
in the first practice until the ear becomes familiar with 
their extent by uttering each tonic element in unison with 
an instrument, or, which is better, immediately after hav- 
ing sounded its intervals; the voice, in the latter case, 
measuring the interval by the impression just made upon 
the ear. If a piano-forte be employed for this purpose, 
the notes marking the intervals of its scales will, of course, 
only mark the boundaries of the concrete, or its points of 
commencement and termination, which will be the cor- 
responding discrete interval. 

73. Tables VII and VIII represent the notation for the 
discrete intervals with rising concretes of a second, first 
upward and then downward. 



Exercises on the Discrete Elements. 



63 



Exercises on the Discrete Intervals. 

Discrete Thirds, Fifths, and Octaves. 

VII. 



^ « r — ^ 

if- — «^ 

— *- « r ' — ^ ^ — ^J 



VIII. 



* 1 * 



a, 


in 


at. 


e, 


(< 


end. 


5, 


i c 


on. 


X, 


" 


in. 


0, 


" 


up. 



a, 


in all. 


a, 


" arm. 


a, 


" ale. 


00, 


" ooze 


e, 


" eve. 



Utter each of the short tonic elements with light radical 
stress, first on the first degree of the scale, and then on 
the second. The radicals will make the extremes of the 
interval perceptible to the ear, and fix its extent. Then, 
while the effect is still on the ear, let the same element be 
carried concretely through the same interval. Then follow 
with the table of long vowel sounds. Let this method be 
pursued with the third, fifth, and octave. 

74. The concrete and discrete intervals should be taken 
from any place on the scale, in any order of succession, 
through the entire compass of each individual voice. 

The formulas of notation simply indicate the direction 
and extent of the intervals, the position of which on the 
scale of pitch may be thus changed at will. 



64 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

Although the vocal drill of the exercises is to acquire an 
organic facility and exactness of execution preparatory to 
subsequent application of the various intervals to their 
specific uses in the consecutive utterance of language, the 
generic character of the rising and falling intervals should 
be considered in their relation to the latter, in order that 
their execution in the practice may be associated with the 
generic state of mind of which they are severally the ex- 
ponents; thus, the exercise passes beyond the merely 
mechanical. The downward movements are vocal signs, 
in their different degrees of extent, for varying degrees 
of a positive state of mind, such as is expressed by 
affirmation, command, denial, etc. ; while the rising move- 
ments, in their different degrees, indicate varieties of a 
generic mental condition exactly the reverse of positive- 
ness; as, inquiry, doubt, appeal, co?icession, and kindred 
states of the mind. The downward movements also indi- 
cate completion, and the rising continuation or incom- 
pleteness. 

75. The next practice should be directed to the waves. 
These, it will be found, partake of the expressive charac- 
ter of the concretes of which they are composed. In con- 
secutively executing a rising and falling concrete second 
(Table V e. g.), the voice makes two impulses, — one for 
each individual movement. Let the rising and the falling 
movement be combined as one' on a single element, the 
flexure or bending taking the place of the opening radical 
of the second separate impulse in the preceding, and we 
have a direct wave of the second (see diagram, page 35.) 
The ear should recognize the return on the vanish to the 
starting point of the radical. 

Next, reverse the order, descending a second from the 
radical, and then bending it back again on the rising 
second as one impulse, and we have the inverted wave 
of a second. 



Exercises on the Discrete Intervals. 



65 



These two waves would be illustrated on the long tonic 
elements in the words hail and ho-ly, uttered with im- 
pressive dignity and adoration: 

" Haily holy light, offspring of heaven first born." 

Apply the same principle to the waves of the third, 
fifth, and octave, direct and inverted. 

The tables of indefinite syllables following may be used 
to gain facility in the control of the different forms of 
the wave. The words selected preserve their identical 
syllabic sound under all degrees of prolongation. 

The following tables should be practiced on the con- 
crete intervals of the rising and falling second, third, and 
octave, as in the preceding tables of notation. 



76. Exercises on Indefinite Syllables. 



Ball, 


Wheels, 


Wear, 


Flames, 


Awe, 


More, 


Breathe, 


Form, 


All, 


Earn, 


Jar, 


Give, 


Fall, 


Due, 


Farm, 


War, 


Ooze, 


Spire, 


Arm, 


Oil, 


Nine, 


Few, 


Song, 


Air, 


Call, 


All, 


Fame, 


Queen, 


Eel, 


Gave, 


Dew, 


Sing, 


Jaw, 


Bull, 


Browse, 


Man, 


Boy, 


Line, 


Nor, 


Age, 


Vine, 


End, 


Tell, 


Sir, 


Fell, 


Are, 


Vow, 


Well, 


Err, 


Ye, 


Rouse, 


Own, 


No, 


Blown, 


Tone, 


Stream, 


Keen, 


Thee, 


Harm, 


Urge, 


Thy, 


Fare, 


Flaw, 


Love, 


Show, 


Rise, 


Lorn, 


Leave, 


Bawl, 


Borne, 


Maul, 


Boil, 


Paw, 


Lone, 


Small, 


One, 


Stare, 


Soon, 


Haul, 


Come, 


Saw, 


Writhe, 


Live, 


Here, 


Snooze, 


Curd, 


Brawl, 


Tithe, 


Drive, 


Snare, 


Rare, 


Stars, 


Where, 


Sneeze, 


Spare, 


Flows, 


When, 


Knell, 


Strive, 


Shorn, 


Home, 


Care, 


King, 


Dare, 


Pure, 


Aim, 


Barn, 


Bare, 


Prose, 


Morn, 


Wild, 


Wings, 


Warm, 


Born, 


Lull, 


Low, 


Furl, 


Doom, 


Bale, 


Curl, 


Plumed, 


Done, 


Times, 


Fair, 


Car, 


Turn, 


Swam, 


Praise, 


He, 


Woe, 


Tears, 


Mar, 


Gain, 


Knows, 


Wine, 


Bear, 


Hail, 


Star, 


Our, 


Rhyme. 



The lists in the preceding table, with their smoothly 
flowing tonic elements, and subtonics, also, afford the 

M. E.-6. 



66 



Murdochs Elocution. 



materials for the exercise of quantity in its most extended 
forms. 

Syllables, when correctly extended, must retain the same 
identity as when uttered quickly; that is, although produc- 
ing a finer effect upon the ear, they must be equally free 
from mouthing. 

A control over quantity, or the power to extend the time 
of a syllable without deforming its utterance, is of all the 
requisites of good reading and speaking least under the 
command of the uncultivated voice. It comprehends 
many of the most beautiful effects in elevated and ex- 
pressive language, for, in extending the duration of 
syllables, it increases their capacity for taking on many ex- 
pressive effects which require time for their display. Quan- 
tity, however, like all the other attributes of the voice, may 
be cultivated by a proper order of vocal development. 

77. Before leaving this subject, one important word with 
regard to the exactness of measurement in the execution 
of intervals. In the sentences given in which the word or 
element, in various forms of expression, passes through the 
interval of a second rising or falling, — a third, a fifth, and 
an octave respectively, — it is not meant that these intervals 
may not vary from the exact interval named in each case; 
i. e., that the third may not approximate to the fourth, the 
fifth to the sixth, or the octave rise or fall beyond the limit 
of an eighth, according to the shades, more or less, of in- 
tensity, in the given state of mind. The intervals given 
are sufficiently accurate for reference as to measure, in the 
treatment of speech, which is always a solo-vocal perform- 
ance, and therefore does not demand the accuracy of exe- 
cution in its intonation requisite to the concerting of music. 

The exact execution of both discrete and concrete inter- 
vals should be carefully observed in elemental practice, but 
in their application to reading and speaking the same ex- 
actitude is not required. Think a third, or fifth, and where 



Exercises o?i the Discrete hi I avals. 67 

the car and voice are well trained, the voice will, in all 
probability, be correct, a slight variation in degree being 
of no vital importance in the sum of effects, — feeling is the 
invariable standard. 

The spirit and value of the intervals once realized, they 
become the elements by which results may be attained far 
more valuable, in the true sense of expression, than any 
which arise from the exercise of merely cold and formal 
niceties of mechanical exactness. 



Chapter VIII. 

Exercises on the Subtonic Elements. 

78. To produce a correct articulation of the subtonic 
elements, the different positions of the organs must be 
carefully studied. 

(1) Articulate slowly and distinctly the element e, as in 
e-rr, before b, and observe that the mouth is partly open, 
the tongue shortened and drawn back; while the mouth is 
in this position, sound the tonic, then close the mouth, 
hold the breath in the larynx, produce the guttural mur- 
mur, and the elementary sound of b will be heard. Again 
utter the sound of b, in the syllable b-ut, holding the 
initial element as long as possible; then reverse the letters, 
and pronounce the same element as a component of the 
word tu-b, dwelling on the final sound until we can ac- 
curately observe its organic formation. 

In forcibly uttering the word but, the subtonic gives ex- 
plosive power to the tonic, and becomes an element of 
force in expression; while in the forcible utterance of tub, 
is heard the characteristic vocule which gives emphatic 
force to b, d, g, k, t, p, when final. 

(2) In sounding the element d, as heard in the combi- 
nation odd, the tongue rises from the position of 0, at the 
bottom of the slightly open mouth, to the inner part of the 
upper teeth, and the vocal murmur of the element is pro- 
duced at the base of the nasal passages ; reverse the letters, 
grasp firmly the do, and we get the percussive power of 
the same element. 

(68) 



Exercises on the Subtonic Elements. 69 

(3) G is produced by opening the mouth, retracting 
and curving the tongue, prolonging or exploding the 
vocality against the palate. Its formation may be observed 
as in the preceding. 

(4) The articulation of the subtonic / is formed by a 
moderate opening of the mouth, and the utterance is mod- 
ified by the pressure of the tongue, which lies exactly be- 
hind the upper front teeth. 

(5) M is produced by a gentle compression of the lips, 
and a free and steady expiration of vocalized breath 
through the nostrils. The effect is that of a murmur in 
the head and chest similar to that of b. In intensified or 
forcible utterance of this element, the compression of the 
lips is increased, and the vocule, in consequence, more 
forcibly exploded on the removal of the obstruction. 

(6) N requires the same vocalized breathing as m, with 
the lips freely opened. The end of the tongue is pushed 
against the ridge behind the upper front teeth. 

(7) R, as heard in r-ap, r-oll, is usually found at or 
near the beginning of a syllable, and is formed by an 
energetic vibration of the tip of the tongue against the 
ridge of the upper gum, accompanied by a partial vocality. 
The vibration should be but momentary, consisting of but 
one "slap and retraction of the tongue," otherwise it be- 
comes "rolled" or "trilled," producing an unpleasant or 
affected utterance of this element. This is called the 
initial, vibrant, percussive r. The organic movement may 
be observed during an energetic pronunciation of the 
word f-rill. This is the only subtonic element which does 
not admit of extension in time. It never occurs before a 
consonant. 

(8) R, as in fa-r, is a softer and more extended sound 
than the vibrant r. In its production, the tongue is short- 
ened and slightly raised toward the root, but does not 
actually touch the roof of the mouth. It is called the soft 



Jo . Murdoch" s Elocution. 

or final r. It has nearly as pure a vocality as the tonics, 
taking upon itself the full force (or value) of the tonic by 
which it is preceded. This element precedes, but never 
follows a consonant. 

(9) In ng, the vocalized breathing is driven with consid- 
erable force against the nasal passages and the back of the 
veil of the palate. By a retraction of the tongue, it rever- 
berates in the nasal passages, where it acquires its peculiar 
ringing sound. 

(10) V is articulated by bringing the upper fore teeth 
close upon the ridge of the under lip, and by send- 
ing a murmuring resonance (produced in both the head 
and chest), along with the breath, against the interposed 
obstacle. The upper lip is slightly raised at the same 
moment. 

(n) Z, as in z—one, is formed by pressing the edges of 
the tongue (near the tip), to the roof of the mouth, near 
the front teeth. The vocalized breath is driven through 
the small aperture thus made, causing a slight vibration. 

(12) Z, as in az-ure, has a very limited vocality. The 
whole fore part of the tongue is raised toward the roof of 
the mouth, while the sound passes between it and the 
teeth, producing zh. 

(13) Y, as in y-ou or y-e, is executed by opening the 
mouth, curving and retracting the tongue with great force, 
and driving an aspiration against the palate with vocal 
murmur. 

(14) W, as in w-oe, is formed first by rounding the 
lips, as in articulating 00, in ooze, an exceedingly brief 
vocal murmur, which is modified by the larynx, then es- 
capes through the lips and nostrils. As I?, d, g, and zh are 
formed by using vocality instead of aspiration with the 
organic positions of /, /, k, and sh ; so y and w are the 
mixture of vocality with the aspiration of //, as heard in 
h-e, and of wh, in wh-irkd. If we substitute the vocal 



Exercises on the Subtonic Elements. yi 

murmur for pure aspiration, we change these words he to 
ye, and whirled to world* Th, as in th-en, is produced 
by directing the vocalized emission of the breath through 
a slight horizontal parting of the lips, while the end of the 
tongue is forcibly pressed between the teeth. This ele- 
ment thus differs from the aspirated ///, as heard in th-ick. 
79. (1) Pronounce the words in Table I firmly and de- 
liberately, so that both elements (where they occur twice), 
are distinctly heard. Then pronounce the words forcibly, 
emphasizing the initial elements. 

Table I. — Subtonic Elements. 



b, 


as in b-a-be. 


d, 


d-\-d. 


g> 


g-H> 


1, 


l-n-ll. 


m, 


" m-ai-m 


n, 


" n-u-u. 


r, 


" r-a-p. 


r, 


ta-r. 



n g> 


as 


in 


sx-ng. 


v, 


< 




v-a\-ve. 


z, 






z-one. 


z, 






a-z-ure 


y> 


(i 




y-e. 


w, 






zo-oe. 


th, 






th-exi. 



(2) Pronounce syllables in Table II, firmly holding or 
sustaining vocal murmur of final elements. 



II. 



u-b, 


e-/, 


e-v, 


e-zh, 


Xl-d, 


e-m, 


e-/, 


\-ng, 


u-^, 


e-». 


e-th, 


a-r. 



* Teachers should note this fact, and strictly observe the articu- 
lation of their pupils in executing such words as are likely to be 
confounded in the same movement. The words what, which, and 
wheat, for example, are very generally deprived of the aspiration 
which distinctly marks their correct pronunciation. 



72 



Murdoch' s Elocution. 



(3) Sound simple elements, Table III, taking great care 
not to give a tonic also. 



III. 



B, 


L, 


Ng, 


Zh, 


Th, 


D, 


M, 


v, 


Y, 


R, vibrant.* 


G, 


N, 


z, 


w, 


R, j<?/?. 



80. The difficulty experienced by some persons in pro- 
ducing the vibrant r, and the fault of continuing the vibra- 
tion too long, or a lack of ability to coalesce this element 
with others, causing an effort as though two impulses were 
made, thus: e-r-r, r-oll, or de-r-r-r-a, may be avoided by 
practicing the r, in combination with other elements, with 
great rapidity, on the following words : 



IV. 



Tread, 


Dread, 


Brave, 


Sprig, 


Grave, 


Reach 


Trill, 


Drink, 


Brink, 


Spread, 


Groan, 


Rage, 


Trick, 


Dream, 


Bread, 


Preach, 


Grape, 


Rend, 


Trail, 


Drop, 


Cry, 


Prick, 


Grieve, 


Roll, 


Track, 


Strike, 


Crowd, 


Prance, 


Raw, 


Roar, 


Trance, 


Stream, 


Crash, 


Prowl, 


Ride, 


Rude, 


Stroke, 


Stride, 


Crush, 


Pray, 


Rail, 


Rise. 


Strain, 


Straight, 


Spry, 


Prate, 


Rain, 





81. After holding the initial sounds in Table V, so that 
the strong vocal murmur can be heard and felt, burst them 
into each of the succeeding tonics, making short words, 
as : ba, bee, bi, etc. There must be no hiatus between 
the elements, and yet the initial subtonic must not be an 
ineffective, slovenly sound, made so rapidly that it is lost 
in the syllable. The practice is to impart to the organs 
not only the ability to grasp with power the initial sub- 



* Omitted in exercises on extending the sounds. 



Exercises on the Subtonic Elements. 73 

tonics, but to forcibly drive its strength immediately into 
the radical fullness of the tonic, producing an intensified 
radical stress. Then let each of the syllables containing 
the long vowels be carried through the intervals of in- 
tonation. See Tables of Notation, Chapter VII. The 
force of the initial subtonic will give directness to the 
positive down sweep of the wider falling concretes. 



V. 



b. — a, e, 1, 6, u, 01, ou. 

d. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 

g. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 

1. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 

m. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 

n. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 



Initial r. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 

" v. — a, e, i, o, u, oi,~ou. 

" z. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 

" w. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 

" th. — a, e, i, o, u, oi, ou. 



82. In Table VI, it will be seen, short syllables are 
produced by placing each of the long tonics successively 
before each subtonic sound that may close a syllable or 
become a final element; as, abe, eeb, ibe, etc. 

(1) Utter each of these syllables with slight radical 
opening, and prolonged holding or sustaining of the final 
subtonic strongly or firmly, on a level line of pitch, 
terminating with forcible utterance of the abrupt vocule. 
The protracting of vocal murmur on a level line of 
pitch is simply for the purposes of vocal culture, as this 
is the holding, pharyngeal power through which the full 
extent of resonant murmur or reverberating vocality of 
the subtonic sounds is developed. They may be carried 
directly through the concrete intervals. Next, through the 
principal forms of the wave. In these forms, it will be 
observed, the vocule of the subtonic becomes almost im- 
perceptible, lessening in proportion as they become ele- 
ments of grace instead of force. 

M. E.-7. 



74 



Murdoch's Elocution. 



VI. 



a. — b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 

e. — b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 

I.— b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 

6. — b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 

u. — b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 



a. — b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 

6. — b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 

i.— b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 

6. — b, d, g, v, m, n, z. 

u.— b, d, g, v, m, n, z, 



83. In pronouncing the following words, let them be 
uttered with deliberate force, holding the initial letter with 
vocal murmur long enough to hear and feel its character- 
istic sound and action. Then let the practice be given 
more rapidly : 

Bad — boys — boasting — brag. But — bold — bears — bite — badly. 
Donkeys — don't — dare — danger — daring — deeds — doubtful. Old — 
standards — stand — steadily. Grand — bland — logic — made — modern — 
muddle — legal. While — rude — winds — roared — gentle — lambs — nib- 
bled — daintily. Savage — leopards — ramped — and — raved. Sturdy — 
striders — strode — staunchly. 



VII. 



Bade, 


Mull, 


Wren, 


Yearn, 


Mab, 


Gun, 


Log, 


Den, 


Bug, 


Dog, 


Glum, 


Noll, 


Dub, 


Nod, 


Dug, 


Vice, 


Babe, 


Dun, 


Mob, 


Wed, 


Nab, 


Mud, 


Nun, 


Gab, 


Doll, 


Glen, 


Woe, 


Man, 


Lad, 


Mum, 


Vine, 


Gull, 


Mug, 


Nine, 


Wan, 


Bad, 


Bed, 


No, 


Gat, 


Note, 


Song, 


Buzz, 


Seize, 


Dame, 


Now, 


Bang, 


Please, 


Dam, 


Not, 


Hung, 


Treasure, 


Lame, 


Rat, 


Bab, 


You, 


Late, 


Rack, 


Vane, 


Yore, 


Loll, 


Ray, 


Van, 


Yet, 


Rye, 


Void, 


We, 


Me, 


Ring, 


Lest, 


Wine, 


My, 


Near, 


Wheeze, 


Mow, 


Ear, 


Froze, 


Won, 


Burst, 


War, 


Dawn, 


They, 


Blast, 


Lag, 


Mouth 


This, 


Bang, 


Loaf, 


Bale, 


Thine, 


Bragg, 


Dive, 


Dane, 


Way, 


Wove, 


Valve, 


Yell, 


Thee, 


Dew, 


Zaney, 


Seizure, 


Live, 


Boy, 


Graze, 


Wand, 


There, 


Yarn, 


Guy, 


Day, 


That, 


Blind, 


Maze, 


Wreath, 


Grove, 


Love, 


Yawn, 


Thy, 


Daze, 


Zion, 


Loathe, 


Lithe. 



Exercises on the Snbto7iic Elements. 75 

84. All of the syllables in Table VII terminating with a 
subtonic, preceded by a long tonic, should be carried with 
less percussive initial force, and with a view to prolong- 
ing the final element through all the intervals of intona- 
tion, both upward and downward. 



Chapter IX. 



Exercises on the Atonic Elements. 

85. Table of the Atonic Elements. 
I. 



P, as in p-ipe. 

T, as in /-en/. 

C (hard) and k, as in <r-a>fce, 

E y as in f-ife. 

C (soft) and s, as in c-eaje. 



H y as in k-e. 

Wh, " w/i-eat. 

Th, " th-vsx. 

Shy " pu-j/4. 



(1) The atonic p is produced by an intense compression 
of the lips, immediately followed by a whispered or aspi- 
rated explosion.* 

(2) In executing /, the end of the tongue is strongly 
pressed against the roof of the mouth, and an aspirated 
explosion is made on the instant of its withdrawal. 

(3) K is produced by opening the mouth, retracting and 
curving the tongue, while an aspiration is exploded against 
the palate. 

(4) F is executed by a forcible compression of the teeth 
upon the lips, while the breath is driven against them. 

(5) S ot c (soft), as in the word cease, is formed by 
pressing the sides of the tongue against the roof of the 
mouth, and driving through the small aperture between 



*The distinctness of elemental practice, if carried too far in 
reading or speech, becomes a defect, and should be guarded 
against, particularly in p, t, and k. 
(76) 



Exercises on the Atonic Elements. yy 

the tip and interior ridge of gum the aspirated breath. 
This forms the characteristic sibillation or hiss of this ele- 
ment. 

(6) H is formed by a forcible emission of the breath in 
the form of a whisper, through the moderately open organs 
of speech. 

(7) Wh is executed by suddenly driving the aspirated 
breath through the lips opened in the position for whist- 
ling. 

(8) Th, as in thin, is produced by a forcible aspiration 
through the slightly parted lips, while the end of the 
tongue lies between and presses against the upper teeth. 

(9) Sh is formed liked z, in azure, as regards organic 
position, but is aspirated instead of vocalized. 

The atonies have a feeble vocule, but no vocality, per- 
form no part in intonation, and are therefore inferior to 
the other elements for purposes of vocal exercise. A prac- 
tice on these elements, however, contributes to the me- 
chanical facility of the organs in articulation. 

86. (1) Articulate each syllable in Table I distinctly. 
Then repeat, holding the final or atonic element for a 
moment, and then letting the breath escape from the 
organs with abruptness. This will produce the vocule, or 
little voice, of the elements p, t, k, f, and th. The re- 
maining atonic elements producing no occlusion (or but 
little) in their formation, are almost without the vocule. 

(2) Next utter the simple aspirated elements, as in the 
following table, with emphatic force : 

II. 



P! 


K! 


S! 


Wh! 


T! 


F! 


H! 


Sh! 
Th! 



(3) Pronounce the following words with distinct articula- 
tion of every element in combination. 



78 



Murdoch's Elocution. 



in. 



Pap, 


Bold, 


Whale, 


Tat, 


Hark, 


Where, 


Kile, 


Siss, 


What, 


Fife, 


Ice, 


Whence, 


Fright, 


Sweep, 


Whiff, 


Wi/e, 


Shame, 


Thick, 


Cuff, 


Shock, 


Throat, 


Hah, 


Shot, 


Death, 


Haul, 


Swish, 


Thwart, 


Harm, 


WisA, 


Thank. 



(4) Pronounce the words in the following table, "hold- 
ing " the initial letter firmly for a moment, and then letting 
the sound break abruptly from the first atonic into the 
tonic, and terminating the syllable with the second atonic, 
giving its vocule distinctly. 

It must be carefully noted that in pronouncing the 
syllable no hiatus occurs between the sound of the aspirate 
element and the tonic, but that the former, after a mo- 
mentary holding, must instantaneously open into the latter. 
The same thing has been pointed out as applying to the 
subtonic elements when they precede the tonics. 



IV. 



Peck, 


Fife, 


Thick, 


Kiss, 


Tip, 


Sick, 


Shut, 


Heath. 


Rob, 


Hush, 


Wheat. 





87. Let these tables be often and carefully repeated, ob- 
serving a correct use of the breath, as suggested by the 
directions for breathing in the preceding exercises. The 
rule for the correct sounding of the final subtonics and 
atonies is to stop the breath with the separation of the 
organs, otherwise there is likely to occur an after puff or 
aspiration; as, lip-ah, did-ah, and-ah. 

The utmost rigor of attention on the part of the student 
is required to guard against the evils arising from bad 
elementary training. 



Miscellaneous Exercises. 79 



Exercises on Short Tonics, Abrupt Subtonic, and 
Atonic Elements. 

88. (1) First cough out the tonic elements. Then artic- 
ulate tonic element with explosive force in pure vocality. 
Next, utter entire syllable in the columns of Table V 
with forcible distinctness. 



V. 

A-a^, A-a.d, A-a^, A-a/, A -a/, A-a£, 

E-e/>, E-ed, E-eg, E-e/, E-ep, E-ek, 

I-i£, l-id, lAg t I-i/, I-ip, I-Lfc, 

O-o^, O-od, O-og, O-ot, O-o/, O-o/C', 

U-u£. U-uaT. U-u^. U-u/. U-u/. U-u/-. 

(2) First give the elemental sound of the subtonics and 
atonies in the columns of Table VI, holding on to the 
guttural murmur of the former, and to the organic posi- 
tion for the latter, and closing with the vocule. Then 
pronounce syllables distinctly, and with force. After the 
vocule of the atonies and subtonics is brought under con- 
trol of the organs, lessen the force on those terminative 
sounds to the utmost delicacy of touch. If employed 
beyond the effect of delicate precision in ordinary articu- 
lation, the vocule produces an unpleasant and pedantic 
effect. 

VI. 

D-a£, B-ed, B-i<5, B-o£, B-u3, 

D-a</, D-ed, D-id, D-od, B-nd, 

G-zg, G-eg, G-i^, G-o^, G-u^, 

T-a/, T-e/, T-i/, T-o/, T-u/, 

P-a/, P-e/, P-i/, P-o/, P-u/, 

K-a*. K-e/t, K-i/c. K-o£. K-u*.* 



• The teacher may transfer these exercises to the blackboard, 
and diversify the mode of exercise so as to embrace a varied range 
of brisk and rapid practice of the organs in the execution of the 
elements. 



8o 



Murdoch y s Elocution. 



89. The exercise on Table VII is to secure facility of 
organic action in the utterance of those combinations 
where the subtonic or atonic elements are repeated at 
the different syllabic extremes, as in at-tire. This is 
effected, not by separating the organs on the first sound 
before uttering the latter, but by a renewed forcible exer- 
tion of the organs, which increases and prolongs the 
sound of the vocal murmur of the subtonic, and gives pre- 
cision to the atonic. This practice on the doubling of the 
element, therefore, imparts the ''holding power" to the 
organs on these elements. 



VII. 



At-tack, 


Op-pose, 


Im-mense, 


Ad-dress, 


Oc-cur, 


In-ner, 


Ap-peal, 


Oc-casion, 


Up-per, 


Ap-proach, 


Oc-cult, 


Ut-ter, 


At-test, 


Ef-fuse, 


Sup-port, 


Ap-pear, 


Ef-fect, 


Sup-press, 


At-tempt, 


Ag-gressor, 


Sup-ply, 


Ac-cept, 


Im-merse, 


At-tach. 



go. The constant repetition of exercises on the elements, 
in every possible combination, is not only for perfecting 
the concrete movement, but it is the means by which the 
voice is improved, and in many cases built. They are of 
the same value as the practice of do, re, mi, upon the 
scales in cultivating the voice for singing. 

The concrete is the vital principal in the perfection of 
speech ; it marks the difference between the ' ' hurried, 
clipped sounds heard in the voice of trade or traffic," and 
the elegance of perfected speech of the pulpit, the bar, 
and the stage, or wherever cultivation impresses itself 
upon the ear through those musically mellow and forcibly 
delicate intonations that charm the hearer. 

This portion of our subject is treated in the most mas- 
terly manner by Rush in his section upon syllabication. I 



Miscellaneous Exercises. 81 

had expected to introduce it into my manual, but space 
forbids. I can only here repeat that every syllable must 
pass through a concrete on some interval of the scale, and 
explain that it derives its singleness of impulse and length 
from certain relations existing between this concrete func- 
tion and the three classes of elements : tonic, atonic, and 
subtonic. 

91. Every syllabic combination has its purpose in the 
expression of speech; those elements and combinations 
of elements which are lacking in the more agreeable qual- 
ities, fulfill an essential office in the force and energy of 
utterance. 

The tendency in the general treatment of spoken language 
seems to be to slight the importance of the consonant ele- 
ments (subtonics and atonies) beyond that of their mere 
articulative functions. The subtonics, in addition to the 
resonant beauty of their vocal murmur, and their capacity 
for prolongation as final elements of syllables, are also ele- 
ments of great force. They are the means by which it 
may be said one grasps or holds a word under the control 
of the organs ; or they may be called (together with the 
abrupt atonies), when used initially, the slings, by whose 
motive power the tonics are projected from the mouth in 
expressive utterance, or in positive or enforced articu- 
lation. 

If grace and beauty alone were to be considered in the 
utterance of language, it would lose much of its expressive 
character arising from these elements, which, owing to the 
peculiar relations existing between them and the tonics, 
add to its strength and intensity. A careful analysis of 
words will also show the expressive value of the atonies 
beside their mere mechanical functions in articulation. 

92. Sheridan, who seems to have appreciated the real 
value of the consonants more than almost any other writer 
before Rush, says: "Nothing is more common than to 



82 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

hear natives of this country (England) acknowledging the 
justness of the charge which foreigners make against the 
English tongue, that of abounding too much in consonants; 
and yet, upon a fair examination, it would appear that we 
have no more than what contribute to strength and expres- 
sion. If the vowels be considered as the blood, the con- 
sonants are the nerves and sinews of a language." And 
again: "As the blending of vowels in dipthongs gives the 
greatest sweetness to syllables, so the union of two or more 
consonants gives the greatest strength." 

93. Smart, in speaking of the benefits of a "cultivated 
utterance of the consonants," says: 

" It is understood that a language is harmonious in proportion 
as it abounds with open vowel sounds. . . . Doubtless, in respect 
to melody alone, such a language must possess great advantages. 
Where softness, harmony, and sweetness are required in pastoral or 
elegaic poetry, and in that species of eloquence where the object 
is only to please and captivate, it will be used with great effect. 
But when we intend to be strong and nervous, to rouse and 
animate, whence is to come the corresponding energy in the lan- 
guage? ... In fact, real energy of pronunciation [delivery] does 
not consist in a vociferate utterance, but in active and forcible ex- 
ertion of the organs ; and if a language gives no room for any ex- 
ertion of this kind, if to pronounce it properly the whole flow of 
language must roll upon the vowels, and the consonants be little 
dwelt upon, however harmonious such a language would be, it 
would want strength and vigor. It is certain that the English 
tongue is not chargeable with defects of this kind. On the con- 
trary, the number of its monosyllables, which so often begin or end 
with clusters of consonants, and the frequent practice of shortening 
or entirely shutting the vowel sounds, have been the cause of tax- 
ing it with harshness. But, in this respect, it is presumed much 
depends on the person who pronounces it, because there are proofs 
that some consonants are capable of harmonious effects, and if care 
be taken in utte7'ing them, may supply the want of a greater number 
of sounds purely vocal, at the same time that they preserve their 
quality by adding strength to pronunciation. As a proof of the 
tuneful quality of the vocal consonants [subtonics], we may remark 



Division of Syllables. S$ 



that a semi-vowel [subtonic] contains voice enough to be made the 
subject of a note in singing; that is to say, if any word ending 
with a vocal consonant — dell, for instance — occurred in a song 
under a long note, it is in the singer's power to make nearly the 
whole note run upon the /. How soft and harmonious are the 
consonant sounds marked in italics in the following lines: 

' There, on beds of z'iolets ^lue, 
And fresh ^lovrn roses washed in dew. 

" It is a pleasure to a good reader or speaker when he has such 
sounds to utter. He dwells upon them, throws into them all the 
voice they are capable of receiving, and through their means mel- 
lows his whole pronunciation." 



Division of Syllables with Regard to their Quan- 
tity or Capacity for Extended Time. 

94. The concrete is subject to limitations in the syllabic 
structure, and the capacity of syllables for prolongation is 
determined by the character and relative positions of the 
elementary constituents. All syllables may be divided 
with reference to their quantity, as affected by these con- 
ditions, into three general classes : 

First, those which can not be prolonged without deform- 
ing their utterance or destroying their correct pronuncia- 
tion. These are the shortest syllables in the language, and 
are called, from their unchangeable quantity, immutable 
syllables. They comprehend the most of those wherein 
the concrete is terminated with an abrupt atonic element, 
preceded by a tonic and subtonic, or by a tonic and one 
or more atonies. Thus, in the following words the sylla- 
bles italicized are immutable. Articulate the words, and 
try to make these syllables longer than their usual short 
utterance attendant upon the arrangement of their ele- 
ments, and the result will be a deformity that will be at 
once rejected by the most undiscriminating ear. 



84 Murdochs Elocution. 

*' Thou to/-tered, starveling z^-start." 

" I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack-ed." 

" Spit forth thy spleen." 

"Tried and coxv-vict-ed, traitor." 

95. The second class of syllables are those restricted 
in quantity, but still possessing a certain power of ex- 
tension. These are composed of an abrupt terminating 
element, preceded by a tonic and one or more subtonics, 
with, in some cases, an additional atonic or atonies. The 
power of prolongation in these syllables lies in their sub- 
tonic and tonic sounds, but is limited to only a moderate 
extension of time by the terminating abrupt element. 
From this slight power of variation in respect of quantity, 
they are called mutable syllables. Of such are these itali- 
cized in the following sentences: 

ti Bub-\Ae, bub-ble, toil and trou-hle." 

" What news?" 

"I am no mate for you." 

John struck James. 

You can not make him do it. 

96. The third class consists of syllables capable of in- 
definite prolongation, and are hence called indefinite sylla- 
bles. They comprehend all that are terminated by a tonic 
or subtonic, except b, d, and g. Of such are the follow- 
ing : 

"Be-ware the thane of Fife." 

"Hail, holy light." 

" Chieftains, fore-go — " 

"Old ocean rolls:" 

" Blow, bugle, blow." 

These syllables may also be uttered with as short quan- 
tity as the immutables, but their capacity for quantity or 
extension in time arising from the character and arrange- 
ment of their elements, is the point (or principle) consid- 
ered in the present division. 



Chapter X. 

Exercises on the Elements in Syllabic Combinations. 

Tonic Elements. 

97. The following exercise is intended to fix the atten- 
tion more closely on each tonic element, as it occurs in 
words and syllables, with special reference to its clear, 
radical opening. 

(1) Let the columns of words be given as individual 
utterances, complete and separate, with deliberate opening 
abruptness of the initial element, graduated from clear 
exactness to explosive force. 

(2) Let them, then, be repeated across the page, with 
increased rapidity of succession at each repetition, thus 
securing to the organs the ability to pass rapidly from one 
utterance to the next. Each syllable, however, must be 
distinctly uttered. 

(3) Take the same words arranged in sentential form, 
first uttering them with abruptness, graduated in force on 
the initial, in the same manner as in the exercises on the 
columns. 

Next, read the words with moderate force, and with 
reference to the connection in groups, as indicated by the 
dividing bar. 

A third repetition will be found of great benefit, as 
regards the formation of habits of exact and clear enunci- 
ation, by accustoming the organs to repeat the sentence 
with force and rapidity of movement, gradually diminished 

(85) 



86 



Murdoch's Elocution. 



at each repetition, but with a perfectly accurate enforce- 
ment of the abrupt utterance of the initial of the tonic 
elements. The peculiar object of such an exercise is to 
bring together certain elementary combinations in the 
closest succession, without special regard to connected suc- 
cession of sense, but to secure precision and facility of 
organic act. Enforced radical stress in plain articulation, 
however, makes every word emphatic; the force, when 
once acquired, should therefore be lessened to a clear, full 
opening of the words only.* 



Aid, 


If, 


Our, 


In, 


Oil, 


Olden, 


Extra, 


Over, 


Outer, 


Erring, 


Ounce, 


Action, 


Aged, 


Urn, 


Itch, 


Ailing, 


Ever, 


Artful, 


Air. 


Agitate, 


An, 


Offer, 


Early, 


Ell, 


Occupy, 


Eel, 


Ugly, 


Agate, 


Inkling, 


Awful, 


It, 


Ooze, 


Elk, 


Actor, 


Angry. 


Owner, 


Impish, 


Ilk, 


Oats, 


Anger, 


Outer, 




Eat, 


Upper, 


Out, 


Ictus, 


At, 


On, 





Out, 
out, 



98.— I. 

old, 
age, 



aroint, 
ye. 



Out, J out, J old age! | aroint ye!" | 



II. 



An 


in, 


awful, 


of, 


out, 


uttered. 


old, 


owl, 


outcry, 


attic, 


order, 


empty. 



*The teacher will find great assistance in his endeavors to se- 
cure a proper execution, on the part of his pupils, of the various 
degrees of abruptness and force of which the tonic element is capa- 
ble, by placing such exercises on the blackboard for class work. 
These exercises can also be varied and simplified for a class of 
beginners, and enlarged upon for the use of adults, as the good 
sense and experience of the master may direct. 



Exercises in Syllabic Combinations. Sy 

An owl | uttered | an awful | outcry | in an old empty attic | all 
out of order. I 



III. 



Envious, 


artful, 


ignorant, 


despised, 


hated, 


execrated, 


cursed, 


spent, 


paying, 


back, 


bitterness, 


persecutors, 


scorn, 


contempt, 


scorpions, 


curs, 


all, 


cry. 


offered, 


go, 


return, 


no, 


more, 


avaunt, 


leave, 


hate, 


rend, 


dogs, 


tear, 


comfort. 


hypocrites, 


vipers, 


begone, 


condolence, 





" Envious, artful, and ignorant, | he was despised and hated, | 
execrated and cursed, | by his former associates ; | his life was 
spent | paying back the bitterness | of his persecutors | with scorn 
and contempt. | 

"'Scorpions and curs | are ye all!' | he would cry | to the few 
who offered him j condolence or comfort. | 

"'Go, | and return | no more! | 

"'Avaunt! | and leave me! | or my hate shall rend, | and my 
rage shall tear, you! | Hypocrites and vipers, | begone." | 

"Alone, alone, all, all alone." 
"An Austrian army, awfully arrayed." 
"The air, the earth, the water." 
"Away! — away! — and on we dash!" 
"Our erring actions often end in anger." 



SUBTONIC AND ATONIC ELEMENTS IN SYLLABIC COMBINA- 
TIONS. 



99. The frequent and rapid change of movement re- 
quired in the different combinations of subtonic and atonic 
elements, renders a mechanical nicety in discipline of the 
articulative organs an indispensable requisite. 

The articulation of such combinations will be necessarily 
somewhat formal at first, but by frequent repetition, and 
with gradually increased rapidity in the successive utter- 



88 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

ance, ease, as well as force and precision, will be acquired. 
The student will find, that perfect control over such diffi- 
cult combinations will render enunciation easy of accom- 
plishment in the flow of consecutive words in the current 
of discourse. 

Table of Atonic and Subtonic Elements in Combination. 



bd, bdst, br, bs } as in or-b'd, pro-b'd'st, br-and, ri-bs. 

bl, bid, bldst, " a-ble, trou-bl'd, trou-bl'd'st. 

biz, blst, bsl, bz, " trou-bles, trou-bl'st, rob-b'st, pro-bes. 

dl, did, dlz, dz, " can-die, han-dl'd, can-dies, dee-ds. 

dlst, dr, " fon-dl'st, dr-ove. 

dth, dths, " brea-dth, brea-dths. 

jl, fid, flsl, ftz, " fl-ame, tri-fl'd, tri-fl'st, tri-fles. 

A> f s > f s *> ff s i " fr-ame, lau-ghs, lau-gh'st, cli-ffs. 

ft,fts,ftst, " wa-ft, wa-fts, wa-ft'st. 

gd, gdst, gist, " brag-g'd, brag-g'd'st, man-gl'st. 

gl, gld, glz, " gl-ow, hag-gled, man-gles. 

g r -> S s -> £ st i gd) " g r_ave > pi-g s > wa-g'st, hed-ged. 

kl, kid, klz, klst, " un-cle, tin-kl'd, truc-kles, truc-kl'st. 

kn, knd, knz y " blac-ken, blac-ken'd, blac-kens. 

knst, kndst, kr, " blac-ken'st, blac-ken'd'st, cr-oney. 

ks, kst, ct, " thin-ks, thin-k'st, su-ck'd. 

lb, Ibd, Ibz, " e-lbe, bu-lb'd, bu-lbs. 

Id, Idz, Idst, " ho-ld, ho-lds, ho-ld'st. 

If, l/s, Ift, Ij, " e-lf, e-lfs, de-lft-ware, bu-lge. 

Ik, Ikt, Iks, Ikts, " mi-Ik, mi-lk'd, si-Iks, mu-lcts. 

Im, Imd, Imz, " e-lm, whe-lmed, whe-lms. 

Ip, Ips, Ipst, " he-lp, he-lps, he-lp'st. 

Is, 1st, It, Its^ " fa-lse, fa-ll'st, fe-lt, ha-lts. 

Iv, Ivd, Ivz, Iz, " she-lve, she-lv'd, e-lves, ba-lls. 

Ish, Isht, Ith, Ms, " fii-lch, fi-lch'd, hea-lth, hea-lths. 

md, mf, mt, " ento-mb'd, Hu-mph-ry, atte-mpt 

mts, mz, mst, " atte-mpts, to-mbs, ento-mb'st. 

nd, ndz, ndsl, " a-nd, ba-nds, se-nd'st. 

nj, njd, Hz, " ra-nge, ra-ng'd, fi-ns. 

nk, nks, nksl, " thi-nk, thi-nks, thi-nk'st. 

nt, ntsl, ntz, nst, " se-nt, wa-nt'st, wa-nts, wi-nc'd. 

nsh, nsht, ngd f " fli-nch, fli-nch'd, ha-ng'd. 

ngz, ngth, ngt/is, " so-ngs, stre-ngth, stre-ngths. 

//, pld, plz, pr, " pl-uck, rip-pled, rip-pies, pr-ay. 

plst, ps, pst, " rip-pl'st, chi-ps, nip-p'st. 

rb, rbd, rbz, u he-rb, ba-rb'd, he-rbs. 

rbst, rbdst, " ba-rb'st, ba-rb'd'st. 

rd, rds, rdst " ba-rd, ba-rds, hea-rd'st. 



Exercises in Syllabic Combinations. 89 

r J\ Vft* r &% r ^> r Ji r J l *i ;ls ' n su-1 'f> wha-rfd, bu-rgh, bu-rghs, ba-rge, 

u-rg'd. 

rk, rkt, rks, u ha-rk, lia-rk'il, a-rcs. 

r&st, rktst, n t " ba-rk'st, ba-rk'd'st, e-rrs. 

rl, rid, rlz, " sna-rl, hu-iTd, sna-rls. 

rlst, rldst, rsh y u sna-rl'st, sna-rl'd'st, ha-rsh. 

rm, rt/id, r/uz, " a-rm, a-rm'd, a-rms, 

rmst, midst, " a-rm'st, a'rm'd'st 

m, rnd, rnt, rnz, " bu-rn, bu-rn'd, bu-rnt, u-rns. 

msty rndst, rt, " ea-rn'st, ea-rn'd'st, hea-rt. 

rp, rpt,)ips, rts, " ha-rp, ha-rp'd, ha-rps, hea-rts. 

rs, rst, rsts, rtst, " hea-rse, fea-r'st, bu-rsts, hu-rt'st. 

rc/i t " sea-rch. 

rv, rvd, i"vz, " cu-rve, cu-rv'd, cu-rves. 

rvst, rvdst, rcht, " cu-rv'st, cu-rv'd'st, sea-rch'd. 

rtk, rths, sk, s/it, " hea-rth, hea-rths, sh-ip, pu-sh'd. 

sk, ski, sks, sksl, " ma-sk, ma-sk'd, ma-sks, ma-sk'st. 

si, sld, sm, sn, " sl-ay, ne-stl'd, sm-oke, sn-ail. 

st, sir, sts, sp, sps t " st-arve, str-ong, bur-sts, sp-a, whi-sps. 

Ih, thd, thz, thst } " th-ine, wrea-th'd, wrea-ths, wrea-th'st. 

thy thm, thr, tlis, " th-istle, rhy-thm, thr-ough, hea-ths. 

//, t/d,\llz 7 " ht-tle, set-tied, bat-ties. 

list, sldst, Ir, " set-tl'st, set-tl'd'st, tr-avels. 

Iz, tst, vd, vdst, " ha-ts, comba-t'st, swer-v'd, li-v'd'st. 

vl, vld, viz, u swi-vel, dri-vel'd, dri-vels. 

vlst, vldst, vst f " dri-vel'st, dri-vel ; d'st, li-v'st. 

vn, vz, " dri-ven, li-ves. 

zl, zld, zlZj " muz-zle, muz-zl'd, muz-zles. 

zlst, zldst, " muz-zl'st, muz-zl : d'st. 

zm, zmz, chl f " spa-sm, spa-sms, fet-ch'd. 

zn, znd, znz, " pri-son, impri-son'd, pri-sons.' 

znst, zndslj " impri-son'st, impri-son'd'st. 

All of the foregoing tables should be submitted to the 
whispering process of exercise before directed. All tables 
of exercises will receive additional efficiency in their prac- 
tice, where the whispered form is introduced before or 
after the vocal form. 

Exercises on Words of More than One Syllable. 

100. The practice should next be directed to the articu- 
lative grouping of syllables into words of two or more 
syllabic constituents. 

The rules which determine usage in the matter of pro- 
nunciation as regards the accent of words of more than one 

M. E.—8. 



90 



Murdoch 's Elocution. 



syllable, it is not the object of these exercises to touch 
upon, the latter being chiefly concerned with the education 
of the organs to facility, energy, and beauty of utterance. 
For the correct pronunciation of words, the student is 
therefore referred to our standard dictionaries. In learn- 
ing a word, the accented syllable should always be learned 
as soon as the child studies accent. 

We would recommend, however, as a valuable exercise, 
following in the immediate line of our present practice, 
the careful pronunciation of a column of words every day 
from the page of a standard dictionary, with careful atten- 
tion to correct accentuation and smooth articulation. This 
will not only familiarize the mind with standard usage in 
the matter of pronunciation, but insure smoothness and 
energy of execution to the articulative organs by thus con- 
stantly exercising them on every variety of elemental and 
syllabic combination. 

The following columns of words will furnish a form of 
exercise similar to the one here recommended, giving a 
number of difficult combinations of elements. The object 
in view should be to utter the word distinctly, yet preserv- 
ing the individual characteristic sound of each element, 
according to its proper pronunciation in the word. This 
exercise may be varied by passing from a deliberate to a 
rapid utterance, and vice versa. After pronouncing them 
in columns, let them be read across the page, slowly at first, 
but increasing the rate of movement until the maximum 
of rapidity, consonant with distinct utterance, is attained. 
Then let the rate of utterance be gradually diminished. 



Stubble, 


Tattle, 


Vowing, 


Dancing, 


Babble, 


Cackle, 


Flinging, 


Storming, 


Bubble, 


Having, 


Dying, 


Buckle, 


Gabble, 


Ringing, 


Grinning, 


Mangle, 


Gagging, 


Owing, 


Bringing, 


Murmur, 



Rabid, 

Cubeb, 

Deadly, 

Peptic 

Bib. 



Exercises in Syllabic Combinations. 9 1 



Gig, 


Giggle, 


Heaven, 


Mention, 


Strengthen, 


Little, 


Season, 


Pipkin, 


Critic, 


Kick, 


Taken, 


Kickshaw, 


Gloaming, 


Stringing, 


Uncle, 


Hoping, 


Gloomy, 


Rising, 


Evening, 


Wrangling, 


Singing, 


Thinking, 


Ailing, 


Humming, 


Smoking, 


Sickle, 


Mowing, 


Grajnmar, 


Pebble, 


Chicken, 



Lengthen, 

Reason, 

Witticism, 

Tattle, 

Squibler, 

Robbin, 

Dodder, 

Goggle, 

Magog, 

Totter, 

Poplin, 

Stolen^ 

Sprinkle, 

Widen, 

Wringing, 



1 drubbing, 

Mingling, 


Shrapnel, 
1 [orrible, 


Dunning, 


Coming, 


Swinging, 
Tinkling, 


Acting, 
Doing, 


Tapping, 

Raking, 


Loving, 
Striving, 


Tattling, 


Willing, 


Million, 


Stealing, 


Globule, 


Caning, 


Popping, 
Frightful. 
Puppy, 
Scupper, 


Fallen, 
Famine, 
Tipple, 
Spoken. 


Twinkling, 





II. — Polysyllabic Words. 



Absolutely, 

Abstinently, 

Accessory, 

Accurately, 

Agitated, 

Adequately, 

Angularly, 

Antepenult, 

Architecture, 

Agriculture, 

Annihilate, 

Antipathy, 

Apocrypha, 

Apostatize, 

Appropriate, 

Assiduous, 

Assimilate, 

Associate, 

Acquiescence, 

Acquisition, 

Alienation, 

Necessarily, 

Ordinarily, 

Momentarily, 

Temporarily, 

Recognition, 

Particularly, 

Recognize, 



Voluntarily, 

Obediently, 

Immediately, 

Innumerable, 

Intolerable, 

Dishonorable, 

Ambiguously, 

Articulately, 

Collaterally, 

Colloquially, 

Affability, 

Agricultural, 

Allegorical, 

Alimentary, 

Astrological, 

Atmospherical, 

Christianity, 

Chronological, 

Annihilation, 

Annunciation, 

Appreciation, 

Apologetic, 

Association, 

Circumlocution, 

Apocalyptic, 

Acknowledgment, 

Regularly, 

Cemetery, 



Circumvolution, 

Coagulation, 

Colonization, 

Commemoration, 

Congratulatory, 

Authoritatively, 

Disinterestedly, 

Expostulatory, 

Dietetically, 

Disingenuousness, 

Immutability, 

Compatability, 

Ecclesiastical, 

Spirituality, 

Congratulations, 

Seminary, 

Dictionary, 

Preantepenult, 

Reconsideration, 

Religiously, 

Idiosyncrasy, 

Homogeneous 

Dictionary, 

Peculiarly, 

Righteous, 

Ignominiously, 

Syllabication, 

Syllabification. 



92 Murdoch *s Elocution, 



Articulative Exercises on the various Subtonic and 
Atonic Elements, in Combination of Consecutive 
Language. 

"There, on <5eds of violets blue, 
And fresh-^lown roses washed in dew." 

"The bzxbzxows, Hubert took a bribe 
To kill the royal bdube." 

"And now a bubble burst, and now a world." 

"Earth smiles around with boundless beauty blest, 
And beholds its image in his breast." 

"The south sea bubble, put the public in a hubbub." 

"Strikes through their woun^ei hearts the sudden dread." 

"He licks the hand just raised to shed his bloo*/." 

" Meadows trim and Raises pied, 
Shallow brooks and rivers wide.'" 

"And of those demons that are found, 
In fire, air, Hood, or un</er-groun</." 

"He ^ave a guinea, and he ^ot a ^roa/." 
"I can not di^ - , and am ashamed to be^"." 

"A ^iddy, ^i^ling ^"irl, her kinsfolk plague, 
Her manners vulvar and her converse va^oie." 

"Nor cast one /onging, /ingering /ook behind." 

" Zet Caro/ine smooth the /iquid /ay, 
Lull with Ame/ia's /iquid name the nine, 
And sweet/y flow through a// the roya/ /ine." 

" Zie /ight/y on her earth, 
Her step was /ight on thee." 



Exercises in Syllabic Combinations. 93 

" Pale Melancholy sat retired." 

"In notes by distance wade wore sweet, 
Poured through the mellow horn her pensive soul." 

"Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole." 

"Round a holy calm diffusing, 
Love of peace and lonely musing, 
In hollow murmurs died awaj." 

"To talk of wowewtity a«;/ihilated was certainly wowsewsical 
ewough." 

" Whew lightning and dread thuwder, 
Rewd stubborn rocks asuwder, 
And fill the world with wowder, 
What shall we do?" 

"Ri«£- out, wild bells! " 

"And answer, echoes, answer, dyi;/§-, dyi«^, dyi/z^-." 

" Aw^er, and pain, and yelli;?^- rage." 

"And mainly venturous, soars on waxen wing, 
Down in the z'ale, where the leases of the groz^e waz>e ot/er the 
head." 

" As I wake sweet music brea/7/e, 
Above, about, or undernea///." 

" And the milkmaid singeth bli///e, 
And the mower whets his scy//*e." 

"And the smooM stream in smoo//;er numbers flows." 

"Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, 
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger." 

" T^end with tremendous sound your ears asunder 
With gun, drum, trumpet, blunderbuss and thunder." 

"Thine this universal frame thus wondrous fair." 

"Virtue's fair form." 

" What man dare, I dare." 

"Ah fear, ah frantic fear/ 
I see, I see thee near — 
Like thee I start, like thee disordered fly." 



94 Murdoch's Elocution. 

"A wight well versed in waggery." 

" The sweet maid swooned away." 

" He wooed a woman who would never wed." 

" He gives-, as is his usage at this season, 
A series of sermons on moral duties - ." 

"A roseate blush, with soft suffusion, 
Divulged her gentle mind's confusion." 

"The frolic wind that breathes the spring." 

" In China's gropes of vegetable gold."' 

" Progressive virtue and approving heaven." 

"Tenth or ten thousands breaks the chain alike." 

"The s/iade he sought and dunned the sunjv^ine." 

il The weak-eyed bat, 
With .sv&ort, .shrill shriek, flits by on leathern wing." 

"The rushi^-, cracklifl^, erasing thunder down." 

" The string let fly, 
Twanged short and sharp, like the .svfcrill swallow's cry. 

"Whence and what art thou, execrable shape?" 

" Whence do we come, and whither go?" 

"The whole room whirled about her, 
When she whispered, why ? w^ere ? " 

" But with the whi^" and wind of his /ell sword, 
The unnerved /ather /alls." 

u But with the /roward he was fierce as /ire." 

"The xophi^'i- shrewd Jugger/ion." 

" Guewing the design was perreived, he dem/ed." 



Exercises i?i Syllabic Co?nbinatio?is. 95 

"See the maker that they rear — 
How they hiss in their hair." 

"A thousand with red, burning spits, come hiding." 

" Happy thou art not — 
For what thou hast not, still thou striven to get ; 
And what thou ha.?/, forget'^/." 

"Thou art not certain, 
For thy complexion shiftr to strange effects." 

"He /*ad learned the w//ole art of angling by heart." 

" Be /mmble and //umane. Hate not your enemies." 

" Up a high /all he heaved a huge round stone." 

" High, heaven has not heard his vow." 

"A pert, prim, prater of the northern race." 

" Here files of pins extend their shining rows, 
Puffs, /owder, /atches, bibles, billet-doux." 

"Do you think I am easier to be /layed upon than a pipe?" 

".Peter Piper picked a peck of peppers." 

"The tempter saw his time." 

"A /ell-/ale /a//ling /ermagan/ that /roubled all the /own." 

"He /alked, and s/amped, and chafed, /ill all were shocked." 

" To inhabi/ a mansion remote 
From the cla#er of s/ree/-pacing steeds." 

"A block cake of <r#rious quality." 

" Blow wind, come wrac£, 
At least we'll die with harness on our hack." 

"With the old raution of a roward's spleen." 

"The clumsy kitchen clock click, r/icked." 

« 77; rust ///rough the side, he sat on the six/// seat." 

He thrust a //fcousand //astles ///rough the thick of his //;umb." 



Chapter XI. 
Articulation a?id Vocal Culture. 

io I. Articulation is vocality, or whispering voice, 
modified by the organs of enunciation. A good articula- 
tion may be defined to be the precise, forcible, and suffi- 
ciently prolonged utterance of the syllables of language, 
according to an approved standard of pronunciation. It 
involves not only the perfect formation of the component 
elements of the syllable, but the perfect coalescence of 
these elements in the concrete impulse. 

For the purposes of artistic speech, the study of articu- 
lation and vocal culture, or the development of the voice 
for the highest expressive effects in speech, may be re- 
garded as inseparable, since the process of elementary 
training necessary to discipline the organs for the perfect 
mechanical formation of elements, either singly or in their 
union in the syllabic impulse, will develop force or energy 
of utterance, together with a clear, brilliant vocality. 
While, on the other hand, all exercise of the organs on 
the constituent elements of the voice comprehended under 
the various vocal properties of Pitch, Force, Time, Quality, 
etc., as they variously affect the syllabic impulse or con- 
crete of speech, will not only develop a command over the 
elementary constituents of thought and expression, but 
confer a skillful mechanism of articulation which is, in a 
sense, subordinate, though indispensable to these higher 
vocal effects. 
(96) 



Articulation and Vocal Culture. 97 



102. The symbolical form of the alphabet is not less the 
foundation of written speech, than the sounds which these 
symbols typify are the basis of all the expressive utterances 
of spoken language. 

103. We have spoken thus far of the single syllabic 
impulse only. Elements make syllables; syllables, words; 
and words, discourse. 

A word may be monosyllabic, consisting of one syllable 
only; dissyllabic, of two; and polysyllabic, of more than 
two. In the latter case, the syllables are linked together 
or articulated into one group; i. e., uttered in immediate 
succession, with no pause or hiatus between. Thus, the 
syllables all and ways become, when combined into one 
word, always, and not all ways. 

By most writers, articulation is confounded with, or 
rather confined to, distinctness; but it means, in its broad- 
est sense, the combining or linking together of elements, 
which, by their inherent qualities, are susceptible of coal- 
escence, so as to form them into syllables, as well as the 
uniting or linking together of the latter into words, and 
these again into phrases. In the same way, the bones of 
the body, and the joints of plants, are said to be articu- 
lated, or tied together. The articulation of elements into 
syllables is performed, as has been shown, by one vocal 
impulse. 

"If the term articulation were synonymous with distinctness, 
there could have been no occasion to borrow such terms from the 
Greek language or the science of anatomy. Two terms are not 
necessary or admissible in science for one idea. Articulation is 
the smooth and intimate combination of perfect elements into a 
syllable. " — Thebvall. 

104. In words of more than one syllable, there is always 
one that is brought more forcibly upon the ear, and is 
called the accented syllable. The accentuation of our lan- 

M. E.-9. 



98 Murdoch' s Elocution, 

guage is determined by established usage, and the ac- 
cented syllable becomes the seat of life in the word. 

On the unaccented syllables, the voice passes through 
the concrete impulse with comparatively faint force and 
rapid flight; it is, therefore, much less perceptible than on 
those under the accent, and is called the rapid concrete. 
This term is also applied to immutable syllables in contra- 
distinction to the term slow concrete, applied to that of 
accented syllables capable of extension. 

105. In our classification of the vowel sounds or tonic 
elements, they are considered as under the accent only. 
The following will show the occasional modification of 
these sounds in the light or rapid utterance of unaccented 
syllables. 

"Nothing more distinguishes a person of a good, from one of 
amean, education than the pronunciation of the unaccented vowels. 

"Sometimes the vowel so circumstanced is indefinite and ob- 
scure, and the effort to make it distinct would be vulgar pedantry; 
in other cases, the vowel so circumstanced is pronounced neatly 
and distinctly by the polite, although, in some instances, with de- 
cided irregularity of sound ; as, for instance, the z', in docile, which 
is sounded as if the word were written without the final e mute. 

" As to the following sounds, the pupil will observe that by ah 
obscure is meant the natural vowel ; that <?, *, 0, u distinct are in 
no respect different from the corresponding alphabetic vowels under 
the accent, but in having less force and prolongation ; et, it, dis- 
tinct, are precisely the same, except the want of equal force, with 
the correspondent syllables when accented ; but that at, 6t, ut, 
obscure, have a corruption of their vowels, which makes them all 
three to sound nearly alike, as if, in each instance, it was the 
natural vowel essentially short ; and, lastly, that «, in up, is the 
natural vowel without force. 

"Ak y obscure: a-base, a-bound, com-mtf, vil-la, chi-na, etc. 

li E, distinct: de-vout, e-ject, become, appMite, benefice, catastro- 
phe, prophe-cy, epito-me, etc. 

" J } distinct: z'-dea, prz'-meval, z-rascible, itinerant, dz-ameter, etc. 

" 0, distinct: mot-ttf, he-n?, so-b, win-d^w, fel-l<?w, profane, 
absolute, opposite, ^-pinion, original, etc. 



Articulation and Vocal Culture. 99 

" l\ distinct: hw-mane, i/-surp, a-g«e, stat-tte, emw-late, monu- 
ment, aven-wc, etc. 

" A-t, obscure : husb-rfnd, verbal, tfb-jure, lx/p-tize, ad-mit, tem- 
per-rtnce, noble-man, etc. 

" E-t, distinct; good-n^ss, an-thim, si-lint, mod-^1, provi-d^nce, 
tn-lighten, etc. 

" /-/, distinct: pen-c/1, coun-cfl, Lat-*"n, wo-men, bod-i'ce, box-«, 
mus-i?s, bene-fVce, novel-t/es, ser-vile, etc. 

" O-t, obscure: c<nn-mand, c<m-duce, ccm-plete, pes-tillion, etc. 

" £-/, distinct: cher-#b, sur-ptes, ser-rrum, deco-r#m, skele-ton, 
decis-ian, ambi-tio«s, uni-sm, pi-ows, etc. 

" U-r, obscure: gram-mar, rob-b<?r, mar-tj/r, au-th^r, etc." 

— Smart. 

Words. 

106. Having made a study of the elemental material of 
syllables, the next step is to trace their vocalizing power in 
certain words, and show their agency in giving expression 
to the thoughts of the mind and the feelings of the heart. 

Much depends upon the treatment of words. Our ideas 
concerning different subjects become familiar to us, while 
words enable us to explain these ideas. Therefore, we are 
compelled to choose the proper kind of words, and to give 
them the vocality best suited to their capacity for ex- 
pressive purposes. While some words are more fitted than 
others for vocal effects, nearly all possess available qualities 
in that direction. 

The degrees of vocality applied to words must depend 
altogether upon the position they assume in the formation 
of sentences, the same word being at different times of 
differing degrees of importance, sometimes powerful, some- 
times subordinate, etc. Therefore, the kind of vocal treat- 
ment a word receives must depend on its relative position 
as an expressive adjunct, and not upon its vocal capacity 
and attributes alone. We know that "the various sounds 
which, united, form a word, have difference of force within 



ioo Murdoch's Elocution. 

them; some will travel, others drop, while others again 
will melt into their neighbors. Intrinsic force and relative 
force have to be considered in teaching public speakers 
and singers."* 

Nor must we here undervalue the fact that this individual 
character of each element employed in the construction of 
the syllables, not less than its connection with other ele- 
ments, goes to make the action either abrupt or level, 
harsh or smooth. (See "A Plea for Spoken Language" 
page 154-) Thus, crackling, crashing, and breaking owe 
their harshness and abruptness to the sharp and quick ictus 
of the organic formation of the aspirate hard c, and the 
combinations of br, sh, cr. These clattering, banging, and 
clashing sounds are the materials which produce short 
syllabic time and abruptness. In such words as flowing, 
blowing, streaming, moving, musing, sailing, flying, pruning, 
and this class of words, we find the coalescing of the 
liquids with vowels, and the implication of other elements 
in the unobstructed flow of sounds, which produce the 
pleasing vocal continuity which gives grace and beauty to 
tone. Hence, the power to be gained over words by ele- 
mentary practices. 

The indefinite syllables give slow and solemn effect to 
awe, sublimity, and grandeur, by a full and forcible vo- 
cality commensurate with the emotion and sentiment which 
naturally belongs to such literal signs; as, awful, grandeur, 
wondrous, splendor, rolling, mountainous, bold, bi'oad, billowy, 
stars, oceanic, multitude, million, tremendous, thundering, 
towering, eternity, glorious, stupendous, immortal, and for- 
ever. 

In expressive utterance, the indefinite syllables receive 
their time from median stress and the waves of the voice, 
with the addition of the tremulous movement. The muta- 



Lunn. 



Articulation and I oca I Culture. 101 

ble syllables are brought into prominence by force and 
thorough stress, while immutable syllables owe their ex- 
pressive character to radical stress and high pitch. 

Swedenborg has told us that the vowel sounds of lan- 
guage are akin to the spirit of goodness, and express the 
the qualities of the Creator; as, Glory, Power, and Holi- 
ness ; while the consonants express the spirit of evil ; as, 
Hatred, Spite, and Malice. 

The resonance of the vowel sounds gives a peculiar 
vocal significance, independent of their other qualities, to 
such words as almighty, adoration, wonder, eternal, sublime, 
benevolence, magnificence, love, charity, goodness and mercy. 
While the harsh, grating sounds of many consonants give 
fitting expression to the words Satan, wickedness, scoff, 
fiei'ce, sin, blasphemy, detestable, strife, kick, bitter, hissing, 
and scorn. 

Brilliancy is the characteristic of such words as glittering, 
scintillate, sparkle, blithe, glare, bright, gaity, fiash, burst, 
lightning, blaze, and charming. 

Strength is realized in power, thunder, roar, bellow, fury, 
shook, and blare. 

107. A useful discipline for voice and ear may be found 
in attempting to give the quality of voice which will best 
express the emotions suggested in the following words : 
gladly, sadly, madly, boldly, bravely, murderous, timorous, 
gleesome, moroseness, ferocity, and tranquility. 

The faithful endeavor to realize and satisfactorily define 
the analogy between sound and sense, in such words, will 
find its full reward when carried into the practice of analyz- 
ing passages from dramatic authors, and afterwards deter- 
mining the nature of the thought or passion expressed by 
the language, to trace that thought or passion to the repre- 
sentative words, then to clothe each with its appropriate 
vocality as an expressive agent, — at the same time not 
attempting to execute an expressive style of recitation or 



102 Murdoch's Elocution. 

reading of the whole passage. By such means, the mind 
will perceive the full value of each word as a symbol of 
passion or vocal sign, independent of its significance as a 
literal sign. 

In asserting the claim that each word expressive of 
action or passion, undoubtedly, has an imitation of its sense 
in vocal expression, I desire only to speak of that imita- 
tion with regard to its kind, and leave its degree to the 
taste and judgment of the reader. Exaggerated imitations 
of sound to illustrate sense would be like all overstrained 
efforts of speech, liable to produce burlesque effects, and 
thus defeat its own purpose. The happy medium is the 
point aimed at in all cases by a discriminating intelligence, 
and nowhere more imperatively than in expressive or emo- 
tional reading. 

The following words are expressive of the emotion of 
anger: begone! away! down! go! do! hence! die! brute! 

Grief.: alas! oh! ah! no! weep! wail! waning! 

Joy : hurrah ! glorious ! gladly ! glowing ! gaily ! glee- 
ful! 

Words analagous to calm, quiet thought : calm, balm, 
palm, age, sage, mead, lone, moon, mood. 

Words suggestive of the character of action : heaving, 
swaying, prancing, darting, lagging, glancing, glowing, glitter- 
ing, frittering, quick, cut, crawl, bawl, dash, plunging, splash- 
ing, stuttering, clatter, tumble. 

Words suggestive of the character of passion or emotion. 
Forcible: Defiance! Avaunt! Detested kite! Out, dared 
dastard! Dash out! 

Gentle: softly! calmly! slowly! gently! sweetly! meekly! 
mildly ! 

Invocation : Hear, oh Heavens ! a?id give ear, oh earth ! 

Reverence : // thunders ! — sons of dust, in reverence bow. 

Positive command : On them, hussars ! In thunder o?i 
the?n wheel! 



Articulation and Vocal Culture. 



03 



Studies in Enunciation.* 
Tonics. 

A, as in ale. (See If 45.) — a, ai, ei, ey, au, ay, ea, ao, 
eigh, aye. 



Pale, frame, whale, cham- 
ber, sage, grate, age. 

Stain, aid, aim, refrain, 
straight, daily, frail, pail, 
hail, main, grain. 

Rein, heinous, feign. 

Grey, whey, convey, prey. 



Gauge. 

Pay, flay, pray, hay, play- 
er, gray. 
Yea, great, steak. 
Gaol. 

weigh, eight, freight, neigh. 
Aye. 



A, as in cat. — a, Hi, ua, al. 



Cat, bat, hat, s^t, fat, acci- 
dent, national, skald, chap. 
Plaid. 



Guarantee. 

Maltreat, algebra, salmon, 
alternate. 



A, as in arm. (See ^41, 43.) — ah, ea, au, a, ua, e 



Hurrah, ah. 
Heart, hearth. 

Gaunt, aunt, launch, laun- 
dry, haunt. 



Balm, arm, calm, farm, 

father. 
Guard. 
Serjeant. 



A, as in what. — a. 

What, was, wash, quality, wand, squadron, wan, wan- 
ton, chaps. 



*The following tables of words contain the occasional sounds, so 
called by Webster, that Rush did not introduce into his analysis. 



io4 



Murdoch's Elocution. 



A, as in all* (See ^[38, 40.) — a, au, aw, 6u, awe, oa. 



Ball, all, water, talk. 

Haul, autumn, pause, taught, 

caught. 
Raw, awful, paw. 



Fought, sought, bought, 

ought. 
Awe. 
Board. 



A, as in ask. — a, au, ua. 



Slant, dance, surpass, pass, 
grasp, past, grass, chant, 
after, master. 



Laugh. 
Quaff. 



A, as in air. — a, e, ai, ea, hei, e'er, ay. 



Various, parent, bare, star- 
ing, glare. 
Where, there, ere. 
Chair, stair, fairy, laird. 



Bear, swear. 
Heir, heiress, their. 
Ne'er, e'er. 
Mayor, prayer. 



E, as in err. (See ^[39.) — e, ea, 1, ue, y. 



Her, err, mercy, verse, herb, 
member, were, afternoon, 
alternate. 

Pearl, earn, earnest, earth. 



Sir, virgin, mirth, bird, girl, 
twirl, thirsty, irksome, 
third, squirm, whirl. 

Guerdon. 

Myrrh, myrtle, martyr. 



*The indefinite article a } which becomes obscure when unem- 
phatic, is pronounced like u in up, a man, a boy. 



Articulation and Vocal Culture. 



105 



E, as in eve. (See ^42.) — ee, 1, ea, ey, e'e, eo, ae, nay, 
ie, ei, e. 



Peel, eel, trees, seer, teeth, 
cheese, queen. 

Marine, machine, pique, po- 
lice, suite. 

Bean, beat, sheaf, beaver, 
plead, fear, sea. 

Key. 

E'en. 

People. 



Csesar, 
Quay. 
Grieve, thieves, brief, piece, 

field. 
Ceiling, perceive, seine, 

receive, either, neither. 
Series, equable, edict, me, 

the. 



E, as in end. (See H39.) — e, a, ai, ay, go, ea, u, ue, 

ie, ei. 



Met, l^t, fitter, object, chil- 
dren, lever, goodness, rend. 
Any, many. 
Said, again, against. 
Says. 
Jgopard, leopard. 



Leather, weather, wealth, 

head, sweat, heaven. 
Bury, burial. 
Guess. 
Friend. 
Heifer. 



I, as in isle. (See H39.) — 1, ie, y, aye, Igh, ai, el, uy, 01. 



Price, idle, biography, mind, 
thigh, oblige, minute, idea, 
aspirant. 

Die, died, vie. 

Eye, my, sky, dye, rye, 
papyrus, scythe, by. 



Aye. 

Sigh, high. 

Aisle. 

Height, sleight, heigh-ho. 

Buy, Guy. 

Choir. 



io6 



Murdoch 's Elocution. 



I, as in in. (See If 39.) — 1, ia, ie, y, ai, a, ay, ei, o, u, ui. 



Sin, bill, ill, civilization, 
chicken, critic, vineyard. 

Marriage, carriage. 

Sieve. 

My (tinemphatic), psalmody, 
symbol, ycleped. 

Mountain, certain, captain. 



Cabbage, postage, village. 

Sunday, Monday. 

Forfeit, foreign. 

Women. 

Minute, lettuce, busy. 

Guilt, quilt. 



O, as in old. (See ^[45.) — 5, oe, au, eo, 6a, 60, 6w, ou. 
owe, ough. 



Bold, cold, go, mold, bolt, 
obey, oval, procure, piano, 
yolk, roll, motto, depot. 

Doe, toe, foe, hoe. 

Hautboy. 

Yeoman. 

Roam, loam, foam, boat, 
oak, oats, loaf, oath. 



Door. 

Flow, blow, crow, low, 

shadow, tow. 
Soul, shoulder, pour, four, 

court. 
Owe. 
Though, dough, borough. 



O, as in our. (See ^38.) — ow, ou, ough. 



Cow, bow, how, brow, frown, 
growl, owl, brown, crown, 
gown. 



Ounce, cloud, out, count, 
proud, couch, sound, 
found. 

Plough, drought. 



Oo, as in look. — o, u, 06, ou. 



Wolf, woman, bosom. 
Bull, butcher, pull, puss, 
put, push. 



Foot, good, wood, book. 
Should, would. 



Articulation and Vocal Culture. 



107 



Oo, as in ooze. (See ^J 38.) — o, qe, peu, 00, oue, pu, ew 
wo, u, ue, ui. 

Dp, to, tomb, lose, prove. 

Shoe, canoe. 

Manqeuver. 

Cool, boom, boot, stoop, coop, 

cocoon, too, soothe, troop. 
Wooed. 
Group, tour, youth, you, 

through, route. 



Chew, brew, threw, grew. 

Two. 

Cruel, rumor, rude, yule, 

rural, spruce, sure, rule. 
Flue, rue, true. 
Recruit, fruit, bruise, juice, 

sluice. 



U, as in use. — u, ew, hu, eau, ieu, iew, ue, eu, ui, uh, you. 



Stupid, usual, use, tune, mas- 
culine, impugn, virtuous, 
literature, nature. 

Dew, few, new, blew, flew, 
sewer, anew. 

Euphuism. 

Beauty, beauteous. 

Adieu, lieu. 



View. 

Ensue, pursue, avenue, 

Tuesday. 
Feud, pseudo. 
Puisne. 
Buhl. 
You. 



O, as in on* (See ^[38.) — 6, a, ow, au. 



Chtfp, cog, b5g, rftd, f6x, 
dog, God, beyond, foster, 
copse, Sn, n5t, oracle, ttfss, 
off, cost, I5st. 



Wash, wad, watch, swan. 

Knowledge. 

Laurel, cauliflower. 



• " Between a as in fall and the a of what, there is a medium 
sound, which is neither so short as o in not, nor so long as a in 
naught. Smart says that this medium sound is usually given to 
short 6 when directly followed by ss, si, etc., as in Idss, cost, brdth, 
gdne, trdugh, 6ff, and some other words. To give the extreme 
short sound to such words is affectation ; to give them the full 
sound of broad a is vulgar." — Webster. 



io8 



Murdoch! s Elocution. 



O, as in or* — o. 



Born, orb, cork, nor, sort, 
form, before, forth, north, 
sword, fort, more. 



Effort, order, stork, lord, 
abhorred, former. . 



Oi, as in oil. (See ^[45.) — oi, oy, 



Coil, boil, foil, toil, point, 
choice, voice, poignant, 
spoil, avoid, groin. 



Boy, toy, coy, oyster, joy, 
employ. 



U, as in up.-\ — u, 6e, oil, 6. 



Cup, tip, sun, dust, but. 

Does. 

Tough, rough, enough. 



Doth, done, won, son, gov- 
ern, tonnage, pomegran- 
ate, dove, love. 



U, as in urge.% — o, u, ou. 



Work, worth, wort, worse, 
worm, worship. 



Burn, furl, urge, hurt, slur, 

burr, purse. 
Courtesy. 



*The element has been said to be a modification of all. Un- 
questionably the difference in pitch, which causes greater pressure 
of the muscles, gives it a distinct place among the elements. It is 
also affected by the r which follows it. 

fThis is sometimes called the neutral vowel. 

X The u of urge is lower in pitch than u in «/, and when fol- 
lowed by r becomes another distinct element. 



Articulation ci7id Vocal Ctilture. 



09 



SUBTONICS. 

B, as in babe. Labial. — b, be, pb, bb. 



Bat, beat, cub, mob, curb. 
Babe, tube, cube, globe, 
bribe. 



Cupboard. 

Bubble, ebb, babble. 



M, as in maim. Labial. — m, gm, mn, hm, mb, mm. 



Main, men, mad, mound, 

mark, mow. 
Phlegm, apothegm. 
Hymn, autumn, solemn, limn. 



Drachm 

Lamb, limb, tomb, comb. 

Mammon. 



N, as in nun. Nasal. — n, mp, kn, gn, en, in, ign, nn, 



hn, dn, mn, nd. 



Nun, nay, near, moon, coin. 

Comptroller. 

Knave, knack, knee, knap, 

knock, knight. 
Gnash. 

Often, hasten, heaven. 
Cousin. 



Reign, campaign. 

Inn, dinner. 

John. 

Wednesday. 

Mnemonic. 

Handsome. 



L, as in lull. Lingual. — 1, gl, le, In, 11, tie, sle, ual. 



Lull, lie, lad, weal, laugh, 

lamb, limp, loyal. 
Intaglio, seraglio. 
Pale, tale, while, smile. 
Kiln. 



All, ball, hull, poll, hall. 
Little, kettle, mettle, cas- 
tle, subtle. 
Aisle, isle. 
Victuals. 



I IO 



Murdoch 's Elocution. 



D, as in did. Dental. — d, g, Id, de, dd. 



Did, dread, die, dare, down, 

mind, flood. 
Suggest. 



Would, could. 

Made, fade, side, shade. 

Odd, add, riddle. 



R, as in rap. Lingual. — r, rh, wr, br, gr, dr, fr, pr. 



Ring, ram, rub, rust, rap, 

robe, ream, ride. 
Rhetoric, rheum, rhythm, 

rhime. 
Wrap, wrangle, wrist, wrath. 



Brave. 

Grave. 

Drain. 

Frill. 

Pray. 



R, as in far. Lingual. — r, re, rr, rrh. 

Err. 
Myrrh. 



Fear, far, war, hair, pear, 

floor. 
Tare, fare, hare. 



Both sounds of R (final and initial.) 

Rare, rear, roar, reared, soared, rarely, error, horror, 
barrier, merrier, terrier, courier. 



N before g or k. Ng* as in sing. Nasals. — ng, nk, 
ngue, nd. 



Sing, ring, wringing, sing- 
ing, banging, extinguish, 
weaning, angry. 



Ink, bank, rank, drink, 

wink. 
Tongue. 
Handkerchief. 



®A most important element in America, — singing, not singin. 



Articulation and Vocal Ctilture. 



1 1 i 



V, as in valve. Labiodental. — v, ph, f, ve. 



Valve, vex, vile. 

Nephew. 

Of. 



Live, hive, wave, nerve, 
love. 



G hard, as in gag. Palatic— g, gue, gh, gu, gg. 



Gab, go, gone, got, hag, 

log, grant. 
Vogue, rogue, brogue, 

fogue. 



Ghost, gherkin, aghast. 
Guess, guile, guard, guy. 
Egg, rigging, digging. 



G (soft, d-zh) as in George. — g, ge. 



Engine, gem, pedagogic. 
Giant, grade. 



Rage, pledge, fledge, ar- 
range, syringe. 



J, as in joy.—). 
Joy, justice, judge, jump, jingle, jury, juice, John, jail. 



Z, as in zone (zh, as in azure). Dental. — z, s, sp, cz, x, 
ge, zu, zi,* ti, c, si. 



Zeal, zone, frozen, czar, 
zany, zebra, zenith. 

Is, was, does, has, says, 
busy, wise, amuse, rise. 

Raspberry. 

Czar. 

Xanthus, Xerxes. 



Rouge. 

Azure, seizure. 
Brazier, glazier. 
Transition. 
Sacrifice. 

Symposium, adhesion, fu- 
sion. 



Z, followed by n and z', becomes zh. 



112 



Murdoch's Elocution. 



W, as in woe. Labial. — w, on, ua, ui. 



Woe, wiles, wild, wart, re- 
ward, water. 
One, once. 



Suavity, zouave. 
Suite. 



Y, as in ye. Palatic. — Y, i, j, li. 



You, yell, youth, young, ye. 
Genius, intaglio, seraglio, 

poniard, minion, bestial, 

Spaniard. 



Hallelujah. 

Brilliant. 

Million. 



Th, as in thine. Dental. — th, the. 

With, thine, thou, beneath, I Wreathe, breathe, soothe, 
thy, these, baths, father. clothe. 



Atonics. 
P, as in pipe. Labial. — p, pe, pp, gh, ph. 



Pip, lip, tip, top, hop, pop. 
Pipe, tripe, dupe, wipe, 
gripe. 



Applaud, pippin, approach. 

Hiccough. 

Diphthong, naphtha. 



S, as in sent. Dental. — s, sc, sch, ps, ss, sth, sh, sw, st. 



Sent, sin. 
Science, scion. 
Schism, schismatic. 
Psalm, pseudo, psychic. 
Stress. 



Isthmus. 

Cuish. 

Sword. 

Castle, apostle, epistle. 



Articulation and Vocal Culture. 



i'3 



T, as in tent. Dental. — t, te, cht, ed, tt, ct, ght, pt, th, bt 



Tame, tar, text, tympanum. 
Mate, fate, hate, flute, brute, 

route, gate. 
Yacht. 
Stripped, cracked, stuffed, 

dressed, rushed. 
Matter, hatter, batter, fatter. 



Indict, victuals. 

Bought, sought, caught, 

eight, bright, straight. 
Receipt, ptisan, ptarmigan. 
Thomas, asthma, thyme. 
Subtle, debt, debtor. 



C hard, and K, as in kite. Palatic. — c, qu, ch, ck, Ik, 
ke, que, cch, cqu. 



Cake, care, careful, cat, lic- 
orice. 

Liquor, quay, coquette, eti- 
quette. 

Chaos, character, drachma, 
school, architect, chorus. 



Kick, prick, sick, lick. 
Walk, stalk, talk, folk. 
Make, stroke, stake, duke. 
Casque, critique. 
Bacchus. 
Lacquer. 



Q, as in queen (kw.) Palatic. — qu, cu. 



Queen, queer, quire, quick, 
liquid, question, quince. 



Cuish, cuirass, cuisine, 
cuerpo. 



F, as in fife. Labio-dental. — f, fe, fif, pph, If, gh, ph. 



Fame, fair, fury, fan, fate. 
Fife, wife, strife, knife. 
Off, offer, suffer. 
Sapphire. 
Calf, half. 

M. E.— 10. 



Cough, enough, laugh, 
rough. 

Sylph, nymph, seraph, ci- 
pher, phalanx, phantom. 



ii 4 



Murdoch 's Elocution. 



X hard, as in tax (ks) ; soft, as in eggs (gz). Palatic. 



Box, flax, wax, expect, vex- 
ation, exit, proximity, ex- 
cellence. 



Exert, exist, exhort, exhale, 
example, examination. 



Sh, as in shine. Dental. — sh, su, ch, sci, ce, ci, c, ti, si, 

se, ch. 



Push, shirt, shave, shout, 

shelf. 
Sumac, sure, assure, insure, 

sugar, issue. 
Fuchia. 
Conscience. 
Ocean. 



Social, vicious, association, 
Oceanic. 

Ratio, captious, negotia- 
tion, mention, patient. 
Tension, aversion, mission. 
Nauseous, nauseate. 
Chaise, machine, chagrin. 



C, as in cent. Dental. 
Cent, piece, cipher, niece, century, center. 



Ch, as in church (tsh). Dental. — tch, ch. 



Match, watch, patch, catch, 

etch. 
Arch, church, each, beach, 



chowder, speech, rich, 
branch, chance, launch, 
staunch. 



Th, as in think. Dental. 
Thin, think, thigh, pith, depth, thrice, throw, myth. 



Articulation and Vocal Culture. 1 1 5 

Wh, as in white. Aspirate. 
Whirl, where, why, while, when, whale, whoa, what. 

H, aspirate.* — ha, he, hi, ho, hu, hai, hau, hea, hee, hoa. 



Harmonious, had. 

Hero, heroine, vehemence. 

High, annihilate. 

Hole, exhort. 

Humble, humor, human. 



Hair. 

Exhaustive. 
Heave, hear. 
Heed. 
Hoary. 



* We are now sounding this element in many words where for- 
merly it was silent. 

In all cases, the vowel following the h gives it sound. 



Chapter XII. 
Implication, with Exercises for Practice. 

1 08. The preceding exercises having given the perfec- 
tion of habit in the articulation of elements, the enuncia- 
tion of syllables, and the correct pronunciation of words, 
the implication, or linking together, of words, follows in 
sequence. This may be denned as the vocal union of 
words graphically separated, and by which, without injury 
to the distinctness of the words, all differences of auditory 
impressions between monosyllabic and polysyllabic compo- 
sitions are removed. 

Rule. — All words, though graphically separated, are to 
be implicated or connected as they succeed each other, 
except the sense be interrupted by caesura or other pauses. 
The exception does not apply, however, to pauses which merely 
suspend the se?ise. 

If the words in a phrase or sentence are not joined or 
implicated, the utterance will be constantly deformed by 
recurring hiatus, becoming staccato when it ought to be 
legato, thus: 



r 1 1 1 1 1 

A man, A ship, An apple ; Not 

A man, A ship, An apple. 

"Oh, could I flow like thee and make thy stream." 

In this line, the O, in the word oh, (for the h is not 
sounded), is implicated with the c, of the word could ; the 
(116) 



Implication, with Practice Exercises. 1 1 7 

d of this latter word with the personal pronoun /; the / 
with the f, of the word flow; the ow, of the word flow, 
with the subtonic /, of the word like, the thy is implicated 
with the s, of the word stream, so as to somewhat resemble 
the sound of thice in utterance. There are also other im- 
plications in the line just quoted, to which no allusion is 
made because they are less obvious. Throughout the 
whole line there is a continuous coalescence of elements 
depending upon an intimate succession of changes in the 
organs of enunciation. By these changes, the sound is not 
merely transferred from one elementary position to another, 
but the respective elementary sounds are joined together 
by a continuity of progression. 

" My great example, as it is my theme." 

By a delicate precision in the action of the enunciative 
organs, the sound of the / murmurs over the intervening 
pause, and is implicated with that of the a, in the word as, 
thus communicating to the ear that agreeable smoothness 
of which this part of the line is capable. The full effect 
of the implication can only be communicated orally; but 
when it is accomplished with due delicacy, the line bor- 
rows from it a flowing beauty of vocal effect which is 
peculiarly soothing and agreeable to the ear. 

109. The terminal tonic or subtonic sounds, except 
where some particular expression is aimed at, should be 
allowed to flow out freely on their vanishing movement. 
This being understood, the fault of making a sudden stop 
or cessation of voice between words that ought not to be 
separated (a fault which may have been somewhat fostered 
by the practice on individual words, but which it is the 
next step forward to overcome), will be corrected by 
attending to what follows : 

In reading or speaking, the breath is never to be taken 
but at a proper place for a pause; (this very often occur- 



1 1 8 Murdoch's Elocution. 

ring, however, where no punctuative stop is marked), and 
between these pauses the voice must be in continual flow, 
the vocality interrupted only by the occasional occurrence 
of atonic elements. The organs, having assisted in the 
formation of one sound, are to take their position easily 
and readily for forming the next, even while the previous 
sound is still going on. Thus, while uttering the sound 
a-we, in the phrase, he saw nobody, the organs are to 
take their position for sounding n, which begins the 
following word, the voice passing from the utterance 
of the former sound to that of the latter without a 
break. 

This same preparatory position of the organs must be 
also attended to in the case of an initial tonic on the suc- 
ceeding word, as the occlusion of the glottis must take 
place, or the position of the inner mouth be taken before 
the radical opening can be produced; thus, a braz^ action. 
Also, in pronouncing the phrases, a low part, to do service, 
while the voice is still uttering the sound represented by 
ow and o, in the respective phrases, the organs are to 
take their positions for p and s, and there is to be no other 
break in the voice than that caused by closing the lips in 
p and hissing in s. In pronouncing the sentence, he 
breathes loudly, the tongue, in forming the sounds, having 
assisted in producing th, passes from between the teeth 
to the gums, where a buzz is made ; and this buzz, with a 
very little alteration in the organs, is changed for the more 
purely vocal sound of /, all of which is to be accomplished 
without any cessation of voice. 

In the phrase with pride, the tongue withdraws itself 
from between the teeth in finishing th, and the efflux of 
voice is stopped by the sound p till it again becomes man- 
ifest in the utterance of r. 

no. Many persons, in reading, have a habit of catch- 
ing the breath, or snapping short a sound that admits of 






Implication, with Practice Exercises. 119 

protraction, where no pause, either of sense or for effect, 
is required. 

The cause of the fault above alluded to is either a want 
of power and pliability in the organs of the reader or 
speaker to continue a terminal sound, and, in addition, 
to start with ease and readiness to the position for the suc- 
ceeding initial sound, obliging him to stop, after having 
uttered one word, in order to make preparations for sound- 
ing the next; or it proceeds from his inability to distin- 
guish in any other way the finishing of one word and the 
beginning of another, when final and initial sounds are in 
danger of being mistaken by a hearer. 

What is the difference between the pronunciation of the 
following phrases, if no pause is made between the words? 

Sad angler, Sad dangler. 

The same arrow, The same marrow. 

To obtain either, To obtain neither. 

Goodness enters in the heart, Goodness centers in the heart. 

The difference is made as follows : in the former sen- 
tences the consonant sound is not protracted, and the 
organs separate without effort to utter the vowel which 
begins the next word; in the latter, it is necessary to 
dwell upon the consonant, and to make its effect manifest 
before the latter word by a renewed exertion of the 
organs, which, however, must not be for a moment de- 
tached from their position. 

If, instead of a subtonic or a simple aspirate, an abrupt 
atonic ends and begins the words, there must be a cessa- 
tion of voice, as in the phrases, a ripe pear, a black cow, a 
fat turtle. This cessation must be equal to what would 
have been the length of a vocal or aspirate sound ; and the 
organs are to keep their position after finishing the former 
word until they separate, with renewed exertion, to pro- 
nounce the next. 



120 Murdoch's Elocution. 

The habit of what may be called the "click" of the 
organs on the " vocule " of the abrupt elements can not, 
however, be watched with too great care, as it is apt to 
become over-precise and distinctive in effect. The true 
idea of the energetic practice given on these sounds is to 
secure a distinctive or emphatic enunciation; but in light 
or familiar speech, or in emphatic utterance where the 
language requires implication, this vocular "click" will 
give it an affected and pedantic character. Nothing can 
be more out of place or offensive to an ear of just dis- 
crimination than this exaggeration of the distinctness of 
the vocule where the peculiar emphasis does not demand it. 

On the other hand, if the former word ends with a 
subtonic or atonic, and the next begins with a tonic, the 
sound of the former is simply held upon the organs with- 
out renewed exertion of the latter, until they pass quickly 
to the clearly denned initial of the succeeding tonic, as in 
the phrases : a tall ozier, to info?'in early, to fain innocence, 
bare elbow, to loathe envy, chief object, to give openly, red 
ointnient, to beg earnestly, mad ox, to leap over, a mock 
orator, great honor, great example. 

in. In combinations where the former word ends Avith 
a tonic sound, and the latter begins with a subtonic or 
atonic, there is but little difficulty in making it apparent, 
without hiatus, which is the final sound of one word and 
which the beginning of the next, as in the sentences : His 
cry moved me. The tea refused to flow. He will pray to 
nobody. He could pay nobody. The row proved long. 

There will be but little danger of the consonant being 
supposed to belong to the foregoing word, because the 
tonic with which it ends will have received its full length 
of sound before the atonic or subtonic begins, — the latter 
immediately opening into its own word. 

A hiatus, or meeting of two tonic sounds without the 
intervention of an atonic or subtonic, frequently causes a 



Implication, with Practice Exercises, i 2 1 

reader to make an improper pause between words. If no 
cessation be here made, we almost always slightly insert w 
or y, subtonics, which pi events the hiatus; as, the arbor, 
high and low, two hours, new onset, joy and merriment, 
gay age, to convey under, now or never. In such phrases, 
nothing is more natural than that the organs should fall 
into this action, slightly introducing y and w almost as if 
written the-y-aiiwr, high-y-and low. Great care should be 
observed, however, not to make the w or y so positive as 
to become the initial of the second word. It is a delicate 
intermediate sound, and its exact use will readily be de- 
tected by a few repetitions, avoiding the hiatus, on the one 
hand, and the grossness of the error just pointed out, on 
the other. 

112. The most perfect effects in implication, and the 
most frequent of occurrence, are accomplished by the con- 
tinuous murmur of the terminal subtonic sounds, although 
a highly agreeable implication is also affected by the exten- 
sion of the vanish of a tonic previous to an initial sub- 
tonic. 

The beauty and grace of this movement is best exhibited 
in the appropriate utterance of the language of repose, tran- 
quillity, sublimity, dignity, and grandeur ; where the quanti- 
ties are long, and the time slow, allowing for the most 
delicate attenuation of each vanish previous to the opening 
of the concrete with which it is implicated. 

Implication, however, is not always accompanied by the 
delicate attenuation of the vanish, but is effected in certain 
forms of intensified utterance by holding the terminal part 
of the concrete on the organs in the grasps of final or 
thorough stress, by which the word, especially if it termi- 
nates in a subtonic sound, seems to be welded, as it were, 
with great strength to the next utterance. 

The simple implication of ordinary smoothness, how- 
ever, should be the object of the exercises to follow ; this 
m. e— 11. 



122 Murdoch's Elocution. 

once at command, the intensified forms of its application 
will be easily acquired, and will enter into our study of the 
expressive application of force. 

Of course, all language does not demand an equal 
degree of implicative treatment, as some expression re- 
quires exactly the reverse movement, consisting of the 
staccato separation of words in certain forms of light, trip- 
ping utterance; or, where a peculiar passionative emphasis 
may demand the forcible disjunction of the verbal constit- 
uents of a phrase or sentence. 

In all forms of utterance, however, there must be some 
implication arising from the natural "grouping" of words 
between the pauses required either by the sense or the 
expression. 

" A thorough practical understanding and application of the 
principle of implication demonstrates the fact that our oral lan- 
guage is neither harsh nor monosyllabic in its structure. These 
graces once acquired, we shall not hear the melodious versification 
of Shakespeare injured by the pronunciation of words as mono- 
syllables which he pronounced as dissyllables ; nor will the rich, 
magnificent, and exquisitely collocated measures of Milton be sep- 
arated into chaotic fragments from an ignorance of the true prin- 
ciples by which its utterance should be regulated. 1 ' — Barber.* 

113. It should be further remembered, in this connexion, 
as a general principle of taste or fitness, that the ordinary con- 
versation, or the familiar reading of commonplace subjects, 
does not, on the one hand, require the same exactness or 



* The two writers who have written the most satisfactorily, or 
indeed at all explicitly, upon the important element of a finished 
enunciation comprehended in implication, or the junction of words, 
are Smart and Barber. We are indebted to both for much that is 
contained in the present chapter, which, as here applied in the 
light of the present philosophy of vocal effects, will be of invalu- 
able aid to the student. 



Implication, with Practice Exercises. 123 

distinctness of articulation w hich is necessary to the utter- 
ance of complex thoughts, niceties of discrimination in 
details, or elaborated distinctions and differences; nor, on 
the other, the same amount of grace and beauty in impli- 
cative effect that would be demanded by the figures of 
poetry, or elevated and poetic forms of prose. 

After the whole organic process is perfectly at command, 
through careful and repeated practice, adapt the degree of 
articulative nicety and of implicative smoothness or force 
to the peculiar character of the language to be uttered. 

We have a fine illustration of the grace of the implica- 
tion in much of the language of Read's poem of " Drift- 
ing;" as, 

" My soul to-day 
Is far away, 
Sailing the Vesuvian bay." 

Here, it will be seen, the implication is in most instances 
effected by means of the terminal subtonic murmur.* 
We have a similar effect in the following lines : 

"Return to thy dwelling, all lonely return." 
*« Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll." 



* Dr. Barber, previous to the discovery of the radical and van- 
ish, made use of the marks in the following example to illustrate 
the flowing or continuative effect of the implication, which, as we 
have seen, is fully explained by the principle of the concrete : 

" My soul to-day 
Is far away, 
Sailing the Vesuvian bay." 

These marks may still be used by teachers for blackboard illus- 
tration, if accompanied by a full oral explanation of the vocal 
movements by which the implication is produced. 



124 Murdoch's Elocution. 

114. Sheridan gives the following as an example of the 
musical beauty of the semi- vowel m (subtonic), in the word 
come, in the enthusiastic utterance of Phaedra; it also 
serves to illustrate the subject of implication, and the rela- 
tion of the subtonic sounds to this important feature of a 
perfect enunciation : 

"Come,— o'er the hills, pursue the bounding stag, 
Come, — chase the lion and the foamy boar, 
Come, — rouse up all the monsters of the wood ; 
For there, even there, Hippolitus shall guard me." 

The subjoined lines of Tennyson's " Bugle Song," when 
read (not sung), with prolonged vanishes on the concretes 
of the final syllables, will also serve to illustrate the beauty 
of this effect in speech : 

" Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying." 

115. Let the following sentences for practice be read, 
without reference so much to the expressive character of 
the language, as to the implicative effects of ordinary 
smoothness. 

The elements and syllables will be clear and perfect 
individually, owing to the training of former practice, the 
energy of which, however, must not be carried into the 
current of utterance, or the words will each become em- 
phasized instead of simply enunciated. 

The sentences should be first given with deliberation, 
and with special attention to the necessary junction of the 
words. After a satisfactory smoothness is thus acquired, 
let the rate of movement be gradually increased to extreme 
rapidity, preserving, at the same time, all the essentials of 
their correct utterance. 



Implication, with Practice Exercises. 125 

Let the rate of utterance be gradually diminished again 
to a moderate movement. This, of course, is only for the 
discipline of practice. 



Sentences for Practice. 

" Lie lightly on her, earth, 
Her step was light on thee." 9 

"Let it wave proudly o'er the good and brave." 

" Calm on its leaf-strewn bier, 
Unlike a gift of Nature to Decay." 

"Father! Thy hand 
Hath reared these venerable columns." 

"The excuses of youth for the neglect of religion are those 
which are most frequently offered and most easily admitted." 

" Fast and fain, the kinsmen's train, along the storm pursued amain." 

"But ne'er did I feel in my breast, till now, 
So deep, so calm, and so holy a feeling." 

" Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, 
While proudly rising o'er the azure realm, 
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes ; 

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm." 

" But speak no more of his renown, 
Lay your earthly fancies down, 
And in the vast cathedral leave him." 



Whatever creed be taught, or land be trod, 
Man's conscience is the oracle of God." 



i 2 6 Murdoch ' s Elocution . 

" Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls, 
Come hither, the dances are done, 

In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls, 
Queen lily and rose in one ; 

Shine out, little head, running over with curls, 
To the flowers, and be their sun." 

" Nor is true soul ever born for nought ; 
Wherever any such hath lived and died, 
There hath been something for true freedom wrought.' 



The good are better made by ill, 
As odors crushed are better still.' 



"Nought treads so silent as the foot of time; 
Hence we mistake our autumn for our prime." 

The world was sad ! — the garden was a wild ! 
And man, the hermit, sighed, — till woman smiled ! ! 

Good and bad herbs does the same earth disclose, 
And near the nettle grows the rose." 






Chapter XIII. 
The Mode of Utterance i?i the Presentation of Language. 

116. In Chapter II, exercises are given in the different 
forms of breathing produced by certain actions of the re- 
spiratory mechanism ; these have been termed the Effusive, 
Expulsive, and Explosive; they are invaluable, as applied 
to expression, and all vocal drill should be conducted with 
close attention to these movements. Unfortunately, like 
many other principles, this has been entirely misunderstood 
by some writers on the subject of elocution, and diagrams 
have been made of the different degrees of pitch into 
which these forms extend. Each movement may be exe- 
cuted in any and all degrees of pitch. 

In the expression of tranquil emotion, either in the form 
of pathos, sublimity, or the expression of any quiet 
thought, the breath flows out in steady streams, that are 
vocalized by quiet but firm action of the organs; let these 
emotions become more earnest, and the speaker finds that 
the breath is gently expelled; this movement increases 
with the sentiment, until the overwhelming fervor of the 
orator causes a violent action of the muscular system, to 
which the voice-producing organs respond, and the more 
forcible form of expulsion is the natural result. Again, a 
change of thought requires that these grand, powerfully 
expelled, rolling sounds shall be converted into quick, 
rapid utterance, that bursts instantaneously into powerful 
explosion. The intelligent student readily grasps these dis- 
tinctions when illustrated for him orally. In the ever 

(127) 



128 Murdoch's Elocution. 

changing forms of thought, it is not possible to say that 
any consecutive number of sentences must be delivered in 
any particular form, although there may be a prevailing 
one. It has been shown that there is a general movement 
that conforms to one or the other of these three forms; 
but it is stress, or the force applied to individual syllables, 
that controls these movements; as, in time we have move- 
ment, but that is governed by quantity, which is known to 
be syllabic. Almost every word in our language takes its 
form, color, and pitch from the sentiment which it is used 
to express. 

Before leaving this subject, I would add that a thorough 
understanding of the principle involved in this practice is 
urged upon the student, as it is one of great importance; 
it is the first means of applying the cultivated control of 
breathing to the expressive purposes of speech ; it is of 
great value in overcoming the tendency to rant and 
mouth, common to many young persons, simply because 
their movements are not the natural action of organs used 
to express different emotions. 

In its application it is sometimes carried too far; this 
is apt to be the case when written directions are given to 
deliver whole selections in one of these forms, without 
regard to the constantly occurring variety of thought or 
sentiment which may be introduced. 



Chapter XIV. 

Quality. 

117. Quality of voice, though confused with other 
modes by writers upon the subject of elocution, and never 
assigned a distinct place among the great principles of 
speech before the time of Dr. Rush, is a broad and 
marked element of expression. It is the character of 
sound or timbre, given to language, by that state of mind 
which it interprets, and is recognized by the ear as the 
natural index to the mental condition of the speaker, in 
whatever circumstances he may be, for the moment, 
placed. The elocutionist, for the purposes of study, 
classes, like the musician, all qualities under the two heads 
of pure and impure; but, unlike the musician, he makes 
use of both to express emotion. Under the head of pure 
quality, he recognizes all those sounds of the voice which 
possess that clear ring of vocality demanded in music for 
its notes, and which, in speech, is appropriate to the 
utterance of all cheerful emotion; calmness, tranquillity, 
serenity, and the other members of this genial family of 
association, together with love, gentleness, tenderness, 
sadness, melancholy, subdued grief, and other moderate 
forms of pathos, all flow naturally in a quiet stream of 
pure, liquid sound, expressive of their gentle character. 
Solemnity and awe, also, when not overcast by fear, re- 
quire purity, though low in its range, while cheerfulness, 
gladness, and joy have their peculiar, high-pitched vocality, 
that rings as clearly upon the ear as the sound of a bell. 

(129) 



130 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Impure quality of voice, as contrasted with the clear, 
liquid flow of the pure, is distinguished by a certain aspi- 
rated sound, caused by a portion of the air set in motion 
not being converted into vocal sound, and yet vibrating in 
combination with it. By a great law of nature, all sounds 
are attuned to the causes whence they spring and their 
effects; this law is distinctly legible in the operations of 
the voice. It is most obviously felt in the contrast of the 
gentle, winning sounds heard in the voice of woman, and 
the bolder and more powerful vocality of man. Mildness, 
meekness, tenderness, pathos, and persuasion, in their 
quality of silvery sweetness, exercise a powerful sway over 
the heart of man, from his infancy to old age ; while the 
power, authority, and command exhibited in the strong 
qualities characteristic of man's utterance, assert his do- 
minion not only over the subject animal races, but also in 
that supremacy of rank which military laws assign for the 
purposes of discipline. Although intonation is the natural 
and inevitable interpreter of human feelings, yet the lan- 
guage of emotion is never so broadly marked as in the 
utterance of pure and impure quality. 

118. The constituent of quality plays an important part 
in the uses of speech, but it can only be defined in its 
broader and more general forms, which must serve as a 
basis upon which to build a knowledge of its more del- 
icate and evanescent shades of color. As the ear has its 
many minute chords to respond to the infinite sounds of 
nature, so the organs of voice produce a thousand delicate 
shades of quality that correspond with all the various 
feelings and emotions of our nature. We express this 
coloring of expression when we speak of the "bright and 
sunny tones of cheerful and joyous feeling, the somber 
tones of deep emotion, the warmth of heart issuing in 
tones of love, or the metallic, cold ring of indifference or 
aversion." 



Quality. 1 3 



Musicians, observing the characteristic differences given 
to vocal sounds by the cavities of the chest and throat, 
described each as having a certain scale, which they called 
register, and noted by them under the distinctive terms of 
chest, middle, and head register.* Speech can not be 
tried with the same exacting rigor upon which music in- 
sists, when applying a standard of measurement to the 
voice. In speech we have no registers; the voice has a 
compass which, in most persons, by cultivation, may in- 
clude three octaves; this runs into the falsetto. A per- 
fectly developed voice for speech should have every note 
of this compass so perfected in clearness, fullness, and 
smoothness that it may be struck truly as expression de- 
mands. Speech notes have been classified as those of 
song; in the lower notes of the speaking voice, when 
under the influence of some strong emotion, and more 
particularly under the inspiration of poetry, we may per- 
ceive a marked resonance of sound, which seems to the 
ear as though issuing from the chest, similar to the "voce 
di petto." In the high, ringing notes of extreme joy, the 
voice seems to issue as a stream of sound, whose fountain 
is the head. Whilst the calm utterances of unimpassioned 
thought range through the middle compass or scale of the 
voice. 

When in the full breadth, depth, and heaving force of 
his tempestuous passion, Othello exclaims: "Like to the 
Pontic Sea," etc., his voice sinks into the deep, broad, 
majestic movement of the most powerful chest notes. 



*Signor Garcia's definition of a register being "a series of con- 
secutive and homogeneous sounds, rising from the grave to the 
acute, produced by the development of the same mechanical prin- 
ciple, the nature of which essentially differs from any other series 
of sounds equally consecutive and homogeneous, produced by 
another mechanical principle." 



132 Murdoch's Elocution. 



''His mind wreaks itself upon expression," and his emo- 
tion seems engulfed in the lowest depths of the fierce 
utterance, "Swallow them up." These have their contrast 
in the harsh, fierce scream of uncontrollable rage, which 
pierces the ear when he exclaims : 

" If I do prove her haggard, 
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, 
I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind, 
To prey at fortune." 

And again, in the passionate exclamation : 

"I'll tear her all to pieces!" 

119. This mode of the voice, termed vocality, though of 
an individual character in its nature and attributes, must 
be regarded in the study of elocution as possessing associ- 
ative tendencies. It may be combined with force, time, 
pitch, and abruptness, for some kinds of vocality must of 
necessity be united with some of the forms, degrees, and 
varieties of the other four modes. Though diagrams can 
be used to exemplify movements in pitch, there is no 
power in notation, as known at present, to express the 
quality of sounds. They must, therefore, be left to a 
metaphorical nomenclature, always a questionable order as 
an element of distinct information. 

120. The elder Garcia said of the voice in song, and it 
is of like import in speech, that "its beauty constitutes 
ninety-nine hundredths of the power of a singer." The 
cultivation of the quality of the voice can not be too 
strongly impressed upon all. It is the most precious ele- 
ment of speech, as it is, undeniably, of song. All 
voices have certain qualities of sound by which they 
may be recognized as tunable or untunable, pleasing or 
displeasing to the ear. The different qualities of voice are 



Quality. 133 



the Natural, Orotund, Aspirated, Guttural, and Pectoral. 
The first quality to be considered is the natural, or pure 
tone, as it is frequently called, the latter term being a mis- 
nomer, and belongs exclusively to song ; the speech voice 
is called pure only in a relative sense, as opposed to im- 
pure or aspirated qualities. 

121, In the construction of syllables in the English lan- 
guage, the consonants stand in the proportion of three to 
one vowel. In speech, the rapid change of organs from 
the vowel to the consonant, produces a certain amount of 
noise, which mingles with the more musical vowel. "In 
singing, the timbre, or musical part of the vowel, is most 
dwelt upon, and this is heard to a much greater distance." 
In seeking to attain to this musical purity in the cultivation 
of voices in the present day, the timbre of many voices is 
injured because this difference is not sufficiently under- 
stood. 

The singer aids the elocutionist, and vice versa, where 
the methods are both correctly taught and practiced. All 
elocutionary discipline has as its primary object the culti- 
vation of this natural quality to the highest degree of 
perfection, that shall be free from all the prevalent faults 
of neglect, perverted habit, and artificial exaggeration. 
This true quality of voice that is round, clear, full, and 
sweet, and that is too generally regarded as a special gift 
of nature to the favored few, is heard in listening to chil- 
dren's voices in their healthy, merry, thoughtless play; it 
charms the ear with its beautiful, clear, ringing notes. 
Injudicious education, in its repressing character, curbs 
the natural impulse, and binds the child to false uses of 
the voice, whereas a judicious training at this important 
period should preserve the original gift, which is almost 
always good. 

122. This natural voice has been termed a perfect 
sphere of sound, partaking equally of nasality, head tone, 



134 Murdoch's Elocution. 

laryngeal quality, and resonance from the chest; it rever- 
berates in the mouth. The breath, as it passes from the 
larynx, rings through the nasal passages and head, and 
strikes against the forward part of the bony arch of the 
mouth, which gives to the notes their brilliancy. 

The first exercises in voice production should be prac- 
ticed, keeping these points in the mind until the voice is 
clear, firm and ringing; the reader may then, under the 
restraining influence of taste, make use, at times, of the 
different varieties of quality which have been character- 
ized as faulty, in order to heighten the expressive effect 
of his language. These imitated qualities will then fall as 
agreeably upon the ear as the discords that are some- 
times struck in music to throw into strong relief the cur- 
rent of its progressive harmonies. The compass of the 
natural quality includes a range of pitch from the lowest 
utterable sound up to that point where the voice breaks; 
this quality should be practiced in the discrete and con- 
crete movement. By the wider concrete intervals, the 
voice may be carried into the falsetto without breaking. 

Having, in the chapter on articulation, given the posi- 
tions of the organs in the production of natural quality, 
we now give an illustration of the carrying power which 
sounds may receive as they issue from the larynx by the 
force and precision with which they are sounded. Thus, 
if a ball is held in the closed hand, and the fingers 
opened, the ball falls to the ground ; but, by making a 
slight muscular exertion, it is projected or impelled through 
space. Thus, the sounds in these first exercises should 
be ejected, not allowed to fall, from the mouth ; this de- 
gree of force can only be acquired gradually and easily 
by practice in throwing the voice across a room, and by 
degrees increasing the space until firmness and roundness 
are gained. Furthermore, this firmness of tone is affected 
in speech notes by the ''flexible strength" with which 



Exa,7nples in Natural Quality. 135 

all of the tone producing organs are held. The voice is 
so delicate that, if even the lips are held rigid, the tone 
will partake of rigidity; consequently, its radical must be 
struck clear, held firm, and the vanish allowed to fade 
delicately. 

123. First practice upon articulation in whisper, alter- 
nating with vocality. In the cultivation of the voice in 
the natural quality, it should be practiced softly at first, 
with daily increasing force, first upon tonic elements, as 
in Chapter V; through the tables of concrete and dis- 
crete intervals, Chapter VII ; on the subtonic and atonic 
elements, Chapters VIII, IX; and, at last, on elements 
in syllabic combinations, Chapter X. 

The following readings are for practice in " Natural 
Quality," " Effusive Form," and "Subdued Force." 



Examples in Natural Quality, 
tranquillity. 

" Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, 
Sober, steadfast, and demure, 
All in a robe of darkest grain, 
Flowing with majestic train, 
And sable stole of cypress lawn, 
Over thy decent shoulders drawn. 
Come, but keep thy wonted state, 
With even step, and musing gait; 
And looks commercing with the skies, 
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes : 
There, held in holy passion still, 
Forget thyself to marble, till 
With a sad leaden downward cast 
Thou fix them on the earth as fast : 
And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet, 
Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet, 



136 Murdoch's Elocution. 

And hears the Muses in a ring 

Aye round about Jove's altar sing. 

And add to these retired Leisure, 

That in trim gardens takes his pleasure : 

But first and chiefest with thee bring, 

Him that yon soars on golden wing, 

Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, 

The cherub Contemplation ; 

And the mute Silence hist along, 

'Less Philomel will deign a song, 

In her sweetest, saddest plight, 

Smoothing the rugged brow of night, 

While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke, 

Gently o'er the accustomed oak : 

Sweet bird, that shun'st the noise of folly, 

Most musical, most melancholy! 

Thee, chauntress, oft, the woods among, 

I woo, to hear thy even song; 

And, missing thee, I walk unseen 

On the dry, smooth-shaven green, 

To behold the wandering moon 

Riding near her highest noon, 

Like one that had been led astray 

Through the heaven's wide pathless way ; 

And oft, as if her head she bow'd, 

Stooping through a fleecy cloud." 

— " II Penseroso" MlLTON. 



It was an eve of autumn's holiest mood. 

The corn-fields, bathed in Cynthia's silver light, 

Stood ready for the reaper's gathering hand ; 

And all the winds slept soundly. Nature seemed 

In silent contemplation to adore 

Its maker. Now and then the aged leaf 

Fell from its fellows, rustling to the ground ; 

And, as it fell, bade man think on his end. 

Vesper looked forth 
From out her western hermitage, and smiled ; 
And up the east, unclouded ; rose the moon 



Examples in Natural Quality. 137 



With all her stars, gazing on earth intense, 
As if she saw some wonder working there." 

— Robert Pollok. 

"Queen of the silver bow, by thy pale beam, 

Alone and pensive I delight to stray, 
And watch thy shadow trembling in the stream, 

Or mark the floating clouds that cross thy way. 
And while I gaze, thy mild and placid light 

Sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast ; 
And oft I think, fair planet of the night, 

That in thy orb the wretched may have rest : 
The sufferers of the earth perhaps may go, 

Releas'd by death, to thy benignant sphere, 
And the sad children of despair and woe 

Forget in thee their cup of sorrow here. 
Oh ! that I soon may reach thy world serene, 
Poor weary pilgrim in this toiling scene." 

—Charlotte Smith. 

PATHOS. 

"Ayr gurgling kiss'd his pebbled shore, 

O'erhung with wild woods thick'ning green : 
The fragrant birch, and hawthorn hoar, 

Twined amorous 'round the raptured scene. 
The flowers sprang wanton to be prest ; 

The birds sang love on every spray ; 
Till too, too soon the glowing west 

Proclaim'd the speed of winged day. 

"Still o'er these scenes my memory wakes, 

And fondly broods with miser care ; 
Time but the impression stronger makes, 

As streams their channels deeper wear. 
My Mary, dear departed shade ! 

Where is thy place of blissful rest ? 
Seest thou thy lover lowly laid ? 

Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast?" 

— Extract from " To Mary in Heaven," BURNS. 
M. E.— 12. 



138 Mzirdocli s Elocution. 



CONTENT. 

Content! the good, the golden mean, 

The safe estate that sits between 

The sordid poor and miserable great, 

The humble tenant of a rural seat ! 

In vain we wealth and treasure heap ; 

He 'mid his thousand kingdoms still is poor, 

That for another crown does weep ; 

'T is only he is rich, that wishes for no more." 

— Anonymous. 

All language of a grave and serious character, in the 
form of essays, doctrinal and practical sermons, quiet nar- 
rative, and plain statement of unimpassioned thought, de- 
mands the natural quality of voice, gentle force, and the 
effusive or gently expulsive movement in its delivery. 



GRAVE. 

"But man is higher than his dwelling-place; he looks up and 
unfolds the wings of his soul, and when the sixty minutes, which 
we call sixty years, have passed, he takes flight, kindling as he 
rises; and the ashes of his feathers fall back to earth, and the un- 
veiled soul, freed from its covering of clay, and pure as a tone, 
ascends on high. Even in the midst of the dim shadows of life, 
he sees the mountains of a future world gilded with the morning 
rays of a sun which rises not here below. So the inhabitant of 
polar regions looks into the long night in which there is no sun- 
rise ; but at midnight he sees a light, like the first rosy rays of 
dawn, gleaming on the highest mountain tops; and he thinks of 
his long summer in which it never sets." 

—Jean Paul. 

" In order to lead a religious life in the world, every action 
must be governed by religious motives. It is not by any means 
implied that, in all the familiar actions of our daily life, religion 



Examples in Natural Quality. 139 

must form a direct and conscious object of thought; the mind tan 
no more think of heaven and earth at the same moment, than the 
body can be in heaven and earth at the same time. Moreover, 
there are few kinds of work in the world that, to be done well, 
must not be done heartily; many that require, in order to excel- 
lence, the whole condensed force and energy of the highest mind. 
But although we can not, in our worldly work, be always thinking 
of religion, yet, unconsciously, insensibly, we may be acting under 
its ever present control." 

— Extract from " Latent Principles of Religion." Caird. 



SOLEMNITY. 

One or two degrees lower in pitch than the serious, and 
slower time. , 

"Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls, 
Our debts, our careful wives, 
Our children, and our sins, lay on the king; 
We must bear all. 

O hard condition, twin-born with greatness, 
Subject to the breath of every fool, whose sense 
No more can feel but his own wringing ! 
What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect, 
That private men enjoy ! 

And what have kings that privates have not too, 
Save ceremony, save general ceremony? 
And what art thou, thou idol ceremony ? 
What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more 
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers ? 
What are thy rents? What are thy comings in? 
O ceremony, shew me but thy worth ! 
What is thy soul of adoration ? 
Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, 
Creating awe and fear in other men ? 
Wherein thou art less happy, being fear'd, 
Than they in fearing." 

— Extract from " King Henry V^ Act IV, Scene I. Shakespeare. 



140 Murdoch's Elocution. 



SERIOUS. 

"It is not mere poetry to talk of the "voices of summer." It 
is the daytime of the year, and its myriad influences are audibly 
at work. Even by night, you may lay your ear to the ground, 
and hear that faintest of murmurs, the sound of growing things. 
I used to think, when I was a child, that it was fairy music. If 
you have been used to early rising, you have not forgotten how 
the stillness of the night seems increased by the timid note of the 
first bird. It is the only time when I would lay a finger on the 
lip of nature, the deep hush is so very solemn. By and by. how- 
ever, the birds are all up, and the peculiar holiness of the hour 
declines, but what a world of music does the sun shine on S the 
deep lowing of the cattle blending in with the capricious warble 
of a thousand of God's happy creatures, and the stir of industry 
coming on the air like the undertones of a choir, and the voice 
of man, heard in the distance over all, like a singer among instru- 
ments, giving them meaning and language." 

-Extract from ''■Unwritten Music.''' N. P. Willis. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 

Natural Quality, moderate force, middle pitch, unimpas- 
sioned radical. 

"From Leamington to Stratford-on-Avon the distance is eight 
or nine miles, over a road that seemed to me most beautiful. Not 
that I can recall any memorable peculiarities ; for the country, 
most of the way, is a succession of the gentlest swells and subsi- 
dences, affording wide and far glimpses of champaign scenery here 
and there, and sinking almost to a dead level as we draw near 
Stratford. Any landscape in New England, even the tamest, has 
a more striking outline, and besides would have its blue eyes 
open in those lakelets that we encounter almost from mile to mile 
at home, but of which the Old Country is utterly destitute ; or it 
would smile in our faces through the medium of the wayside 
brooks that vanish under a low stone arch on one side of the 
road, and sparkle out again on the other. Neither of these pretty 
features is often to be found in an English scene. The charm of 



Examples in Natural Quality. 141 



the latter consists in the rich verdure of the fields, in the stately 
wayside trees and carefully kept plantations of wood, and in the 
old and high cultivation that has humanized the very sods by 
mingling so much of man's toil and care among them." 

" Recollections of a Gifted Woman." Hawthorne. 

ANIMATED. 

This requires higher pitch than the serious, more force, 
and quicker time; but it is still natural quality, and clear 
radical movement. 

"Language! — the blood of the soul, sir! into which our thoughts 
run, and out of which they grow ! We know what a word is 
worth here in Boston. Young Sam Adams got up on the stage at 
Commencement, out at Cambridge there, with his gown on, the 
Governor and Council looking on in the name of his Majesty, 
King George the Second, and the girls looking down out of the 
galleries, and taught people how to spell a word that wasn't in 
the colonial dictionaries! R-e, re, s-i-s, sis, t-a-n-c-e, tance, resist- 
ance ! That was in '43, and it was a good many years before the 
Boston boys began spelling it with their muskets; — but when they 
did begin, they spelt it so loud that the old bedridden women in 
the English almshouses heard every syllable ! Yes, yes, yes, — it 
was a good while before those other two Boston boys got the class 
so far along that it could spell those two hard words, Independ- 
ence and Union! I tell you what, sir, there are a thousand lives, 
aye, sometimes a million, go to get a new word into a language 
that is worth speaking. We know what language means too well 
here in Boston to play tricks with it. We never make a new 
word till we have made a new thing or a new thought, sir!" 
Extract from " The Professor at the Breakfast Table.'''' Holmes. 



ENTHUSIASM. 

Him have I seen ! — oh, sight to cheer 
The patriot when he bleeding lies, 

To kindle hope and scatter fear, 
And light new tire in dying eyes ! 



142 Murdoch's Elocution. 

"The snow-white war-horse he bestrode 
Stept conscious, with a soul of flame, 
As if he knew his master rode 

Straight to the glorious gates of Fame. 

"The coldest gazer's heart grew warm, 
And felt no more its indecision ; 
For every soul which saw that form 
Grew larger to contain the vision. 

"'Him have I seen,' the boy exclaimed; 

'Yes, him ! what needs he to be named? 
The world has only one broad sun, 

And Freedom's world but Washington." 

Extract from "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies ." READ. 



SPRIGHTLY. 

"'Thy grandmother,' said Uncle Toby, addressing himself to 
young Laura, just from the city, and who was playing 'The Battle 
of Marengo,' on the piano, " thy grandmother, child, used to play 
upon a much better instrument than thine.' 'Indeed,' said Laura, 
'how could it have been better? You know it is the most fash- 
ionable instrument, and is used by everybody that is any thing.'' 
' Your grandmother was something, and yet she never saw a piano- 
forte.' 'But what was the name of the instrument? Had it 
strings, and was it played by the hand?' 'You must give me 
time to recollect the name; it was, indeed, a stringed instrument, 
and was played with the hand.' 'By the hands alone? How 
vulgar! But I should really like to see one; and papa must buy 
me one when I return to the city ; do you think we can obtain 
one ? ' ' No, you probably will not obtain one there, but doubtless 
they may be found in some of the country towns.' ' How many 
strings had it? Must one play with both hands? And could one 
play the double base ? ' 'I know not whether it would play the 
double base, as you call it; but it was played with both hands, 
and had two strings.' 'Two strings only? Surely you are jest- 
ing! How could good music be produced from such an instru- 
ment, when the piano has two or three hundred?' 'Oh, the 
strings were very long, one of them about fourteen feet ; and the 



Examples in Natural Qualify. 143 

other may be lengthened at pleasure, even to fifty feet or more.' 
4 What a prodigious deal of room it must take up ! But no matter, 
I will have mine in the old hall, and papa may have an addition 
made to it, for he says I shall never want for anything, and so does 
mamma.' 'But what kind of sound did it make? Were the strings 
struck with little mallets, like the piano? or were they snapped 
like a harp?' 'Like neither of those instruments, as I recollect, 
but it produced a soft kind of humming music, and was peculiarly 
agreeable to the husband and relations of the performer.' 'Oh, as 
to pleasing one's husband or relations, you know that is altogether 
vulgar in fashionable society. But I am determined to have one, 
at any rate. Was it easily learned? and was it taught by French 
and Italian masters?' 'It was easily learned, but taught neither 
by Frenchmen nor Italians.' 'Can you not possibly remember the 
name? How shall we know what to inquire for?' 'Yes, I do 
now remember the name ; and you must inquire for a Spinning 
Wheel.'" 

— "The Musical Instrument.'" ANONYMOUS. 



PATRIOTISM. 

Breathes there a man, with soul so dead, 

Who never to himself hath said, 

This is my own, my native land ! 

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, 

As home his footsteps he hath turn'd 

From wandering on a foreign strand ! 

If such there breathe, go, mark him well ; 

For him no Minstrel raptures swell ; 

High though his titles, proud his name, 

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim ; 

Despite those titles, power, and pelf, 

The wretch, concentred all in self, 

Living, shall forfeit fair renown ; 

And, doubly dying, shall go down 

To the vile dust, from which he sprung, 

Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung. 

O Caledonia ! stern and wild, 

Meet nurse for a poetic child ! " 

Extract from "Lay of the Last Minstrel." SCOTT. 



144 Murdoch's Elocution. 



GAIETY. 

" I chatter over stony ways, 

In little sharps and trebles, 
I bubble into eddying bays, 
I babble on the pebbles. 

"With many a curve my banks I fret 
By many a field and fallow, 
And many a fairy foreland set 
With willow-weed and mallow. 

" I chatter, chatter, as I flow 
To join the brimming river, 
For men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever." 

— Extract from " The Brook." TENNYSON. 

I. 

" Once, at midnight, just as Arktos, 
Turns him 'neath Bootes' hand, 
And the wearied race of mortals 
Sleeps in peace throughout the land, 
Came that little virchin, Cupid, 
Knocking at my bolted door ; 
And I rose in much displeasure, 
That my blissful dreams were o'er. 
'Who,' said I, 'knocks at my portals? 
Who intrudes on my repose?' 
Then said Cupid, ' Open to me ; 
Hear the story of my woes. 
Do not fear me, I'll not harm you, 
I am but a simple child, 
Wet, and chilled, and sad I wander, 
Guided by no moonbeams mild.' " 

II. 

"Then my heart is touched with pity, 
Listening to a tale so dire, 
And I open wide my portals, 



M. E.-13. 



Examples in Natural Quality. 145 

Lead him to the cheerful fire ; 

And the bright glow soon discloses 

A fair child with wings supplied, 

And a shining bow, and arrows 

In a quiver by his side. 

Quick he seats him by my hearth-stone ; 

Wrings the glistening drops of water 

From his clustering locks of hair, 

Which the night dew had sprinkled there ; 

But no sooner has the chillness 

Given place to warmth and glow, 

Than he says, ' I fear the dampness 

May have relaxed my bow, — 

Let me try.' Then swift an arrow 

Sends he to my inmost heart ; 

Frenzied I, but Cupid, laughing 

At his well directed dart, 

Cries, « Congratulate me, stranger, 

For my weapon still has power; 

I have proved it, and you suffer 

Pain and anguish from this hour.' " 

— A translation from the Greek of ANACREON. 



GAY OR BRISK. 

"Pack clouds away, 

And welcome day ! 
With night we'll banish sorrow. 

Sweet air, blow soft, 

Mount larks aloft, 
To give my love Good-morrow. 

Black bird and thrush 

In every bush, 
Spare linnet, and blithe sparrow, 

Ye pretty elves, 

Among yourselves, 
Sing my sweet love Good-morrow." 

— Hey wood, 163S. 



146 Murdoch's Elocution. 



The Call. 

* 

124. In the cultivation of the speech voice, the purest 
sounds are produced in the call. This can be explained 
from the fact that, to enable the voice to carry through 
space, the sounds are lengthened, and they must also re- 
ceive sufficient force to drive them to a distance. In this 
lengthening process, the sounds are continued on a level 
plane of pitch, and, in their continuity, resemble song; in 
the vanish, however, there is a rise or fall in pitch, so that, 
although we may say that they approximate more closely to 
song than to speech, they do not strictly belong to either.* 

The reverberating chamber of the voice, in the call, is 
the head ; the pitch high ; by opening the back part of the 
mouth, the breath must be driven forcibly upward, and 
should ring through the nasal passages and head.f Many 
voices that possess volume and strength can be lightened 
by the practice of the call, and become equally balanced, 
producing that exquisite result, a perfectly developed 
voice. 

The call must not be confounded with the shout; the 
former is given to arrest the attention of persons at a dis- 
tance; high pitch and purity of sound are absolute necessi- 
ties. The shout, as used in the exercise in vociferation, is 
lower in pitch, orotund in quality, and demands stronger 
action of the diaphragm. The combination of the two 



*In Gardner's "Music of Nature" it is shown that a musical 
sound flies farther than another kind of sound. This principle ob- 
tains in the superior audibility of trained [speaking] voices, which 
is always accompanied by an improved ease of delivery. 

t Persons suffering from catarrh or enlarged tonsils find difficulty 
in producing fine head tone. I have known the clipping of ton- 
sils very efficacious in lightening the voice. 



Examples in Natural Quality. 147 



exercises is invaluable in producing that clear brilliancy 
that the voice receives in the blending of ringing vocality, 
volume, and sonorousness. 

Exercises in the Call. 

In the vocal drill for the call, the long tonic elements, 
as in Table I, should be practiced with strong action of 
the respiratory mechanism to introduce force, in high pitch, 
and in head tone. The radical of each element should 
be sustained on a level line, then pressure should be given 
to the vanish, which rises slightly in pitch. 



A-le, 


A-rm, 


Oo-ze, 


I-ce, 


E-ve, 


Oi-1, 


O-ld, 


A-lt, 


Ou-r. 



Call out in pure tone — and the tone becomes pure from 
the continuity of sound — sentences such as : 



II. 



Annie, come here. Mary, I want you. 

Horatio. — Hillo, ho, ho, my lord ! 

Hamlet. — Hillo, ho, ho, boy ! come bird, come." 

The dissylabic words or names in Table III should be 
given thus : Ma-ry. The second syllable should be struck 
discretely, a third above the first syllable; then, repeating 
first syllable in the original pitch, strike the second a fifth 
above; again return to first pitch, striking the last syllable 
an octave above. This same exercise may be given with 



148 Murdoch's Elocution. 

the second syllable of each word struck a discrete third 
below the first syllable, then a discrete fifth below, and 
finally an octave below. The last exercise in the down- 
ward discrete change expresses command, as in addressing 
a child or an inferior in rank or age. 



III. 

Re-tire, Re-turn, Re-joice, A-way, 

Har-ry, Fan-nie, Ma-ry, Sal-lie. 



Orotund Quality. 

125. Under the inspiration of powerful, bold emotion, 
the voice, moving through the range of its compass, seems 
to blend together, with its vocality of manly force, some- 
thing of the deep resonance of the chest, and the clear 
ring of the head. The peculiar effect thus produced has 
no name in music; but Dr. Rush, recognizing in its full, 
round vocality, that quality which the ancients designated 
by the term rotundity, as contrasted with meagerness or 
thinness, named it the orotund, a term that has since been 
adopted into our language, and classified as one of the dis- 
tinguishing qualities of the voice. 

It means that energetic breadth and resonant clearness 
of voice which properly characterizes deeply earnest, im- 
pressive, and expressive speaking, whether in the public 
hall, the church, the lecture room, or the open air — as dis- 
tinguished from the vocality of familiar unpremeditated 
and limited expression in ordinary conversation in the 
social circle. It derives its name from the Latin phrase, 
ore rotundo, used by the poet Horace in allusion to the 
round and full utterance, and flowing eloquence of the 
Greeks. 



Orotund Quality. 149 

"Grant's dedU musa ore rotunda loqui" — "To the Greeks 

the muse has given to speak with a rounded utterance.'' 
The orator, the preacher, the tragedian, and the oratorio 
singer alike require a great fullness and rotundity in the 
resonance of the voice, under certain circumstances, to 
enable them to meet the demands of vocal expression. 
This fullness of voice is not mere loudness, nor low pitch, 
as is sometimes erroneously supposed. Rush thus describes 
this quality : 

" By the Orotund Quality is meant that natural or improved man- 
ner of uttering the elements, which exhibits them with a fullness, 
clearness, strength, smoothness, and a ringing or musical quality 
rarely heard in ordinary speech; and which is never found in its 
highest excellence, except through long and careful cultivation. 

" By Fullness of Voice is meant that grave and hollow volume 
which approaches hoarseness. 

" By Clearness, a freedom from nasal murmur and aspiration. 

" By Strength, a satisfactory loudness or audibility. 

" By Smoothness, a freedom from all reedy or gutteral harsh- 
ness. 

"By a Ringing Quality of Voice, its distinct resemblance to the 
resonance of certain musical instruments." 



126. There is a mistaken idea that the roundness and 
fullness of voice required to give clearness and effect to the 
speaker's utterance in public address, arises merely from 
the application of greater force and higher pitch to his 
natural voice ; that he must merely elevate his voice, and 
shout louder than in ordinary discourse, when he desires 
to be heard and understood by a large audience. This 
mode of free and easy talking upon a loud and high key, 
limits the movements of the voice to a scale too small for 
its most expressive effects, and deprives it of all the deep 
fullness that is appropriate to serious thought ; public 
speech thus sinks into the less impressive, homely manner 



150 Murdoch's Elocution. 

of ordinary conversation, or the familiar style of humorous 
delineation. 

The serious and important subjects of public interests 
and public duties, and the still more serious ones of a 
sacred character, naturally impart to the tones of parlia- 
mentary and pulpit address the peculiar and impressive 
resonance that seems suitable to such oratory; but no true 
ear can be pleased with a hollow, mechanical, and really 
unmeaning depth of voice that is sometimes assumed under 
such circumstances, in the attempt to give solemnity to the 
voice. The full volume and resonance of the orotund is 
the symbol of the dignified parts of epic poetry, the more 
solemn portions of the Scriptures, and the passionative 
vocal forms of dramatic action. 

The orotund is classified as a pure quality, but it admits 
of different degrees of purity, as an excess of emotion 
sometimes allows and even demands a waste of breath in 
the expressive forms of utterance. 

127. The act of coughing (see ^[54 and 58) is produced 
by a succession of abrupt efforts in expiration. It is 
also produced by one continued impulse which yields up 
the whole of the breath. The last form should be prac- 
ticed in acquiring the orotund quality. This single impulse 
of coughing is an abrupt utterance of one of the short 
tonics, followed by a continuation of the mere atonic 
breathing h till the expiration is exhausted. Let this com- 
pound function, consisting of the exploded vocality and 
subjoined aspiration, be changed to an entire vocality by 
continuing the tonic in place of the aspiration. The sound 
thus produced will, with proper cultivation, make that full 
and sonorous quality here denominated the orotund. 

This contrived effort of coughing, when freed from 
abruptness, is like that voice which accompanies gaping, 
for this has a hollow and ringing vocality very different 
from the colloquial utterance of tonic sounds. It may be 



Orotund Quality. 15 



shown conspicuously by uttering the tonic a-we, with the 
mouth widely extended. 

128. Let the reader make an expiration on the interjec- 
tion hah, in the voice of whisper, using that degree of 
force which, with some motion of the chest, seems to drive 
all the air out of it. Now let the whisper in this process 
be changed to vocality. This vocality will have the hoarse 
fullness and sonorous quality of the orotund. It is the 
forcible exertion of this kind of voice which constitutes 
vociferation; for vociferation is the utmost effort of the 
natural voice, as the scream or yell is of the falsetto. 

129. As a further practice, I quote Dr. Barber's invalu- 
able rules : 



"To acquire the orotund quality of voice, the mouth should be 
opened in the position of a yawn, the tongue retracted and de- 
pressed ; with the organs in this position, the vowel elements should 
be exploded with increasing clearness and strength, and the pitch 
should be varied as in the natural use of the voice. Orotund voices 
are often husky and indistinct; that is to say, there is a want of 
brilliancy in some of the sounds, and consequently of distinct 
audibility in the elements. Under these circumstances, many of the 
words spoken on the stage and elsewhere, under this modification 
of voice, are lost to the ear. Experiments will show that if the 
vibrations are confined to the parts described, and the anterior 
parts of the mouth (the roof especially) are made a mere passage 
for the orotund, force and sonorous clearness are very apt to be de- 
ficient. The voice will be deep, grave and dignified, but often 
inaudible. There will be more or less of aspiration and huskiness. 
But, if in the condition of organs set forth above, the vowel ele- 
ments are uttered as before described, and are made, in the way to 
the external air, to vibrate against the center of the bony arch of 
the palate, stretching an extensive and reverberating vaulted cavity 
immediately over the passage of sound, the voice will at once be 
heard clear, full, and sonorous. 

"The properties of clearness and musical resonance will be in 
proportion to the force of vibration made against the palatial part of 
the mouth. The resisting part of the palate is, I believe, the 



152 Murdoch's Elocution. 

peculiar seat of the musical properties of the voice, by which I 
mean that clear resonance which is heard on well made musical 
instruments. Forcible compression of the air against the superior 
and hard parts of the mouth, as if it were to be driven through 
the center of the head in its passage, increases that compression, 
and contributes to the result. 

" Let each of the vowel elements be expelled from the most 
posterior part of the throat with as much opening force and ab- 
ruptness as possible, and the long ones with extended quantity, 
with the condition of the organs first described, and let the effort 
be so made to exhaust as much as possible the air contained in the 
chest upon each element. At fir.st, endeavor to make the sounds as 
grave and hollow as possible. This method of sounding the ele- 
ments will be apt to produce giddiness and hoarseness at first, and 
must therefore be prosecuted with care. By practice, these incon- 
veniences will cease, and as soon as they do, the elements should 
be daily sounded for sometime in the manner described." 

By closely following the above directions, the student 
will understand that the orotund is the voice that rever- 
berates in the pharynx and chest, and rings through the 
nasal passages and the head. 

130. Practice should bring out and perfect the fullness, 
clearness, strength, smoothness, and subsonorous, ringing 
vocality which constitute the orotund. The method of 
acquiring this quality of voice is similar to our instinctive 
progress through the successive periods of speech. The 
cries of infants are made on the continued stream of vo- 
cality. The first utterance of the infant, after this pro- 
longed cry, is by an apportionment of a single syllable to 
a breath. By a preparatory exercise in the interrupted 
jets of crying and laughter, the command over expiration 
and the habit of perfect speech is gained. See Rush, 
page 152. 

The elements should be practiced, as in Chapter VII, 
on the concrete movement through all the intervals and 
waves. 



Orotund, with Practice Exercises. 153 



Exercise in Effusive Orotund. 

131. Open the syllable hee-h, as in Table I, with a strong 
explosive aspiration on the letter h, with distinct articulation 
of e, and let the vowel sound gradually diminish till it 
glides into the breathing whisper of the final h, which 
must be sustained until the exhaustion of breath is com- 
pleted. Practice first in the whisper, and afterwards with 
vocality. 



Hee-h, 


Hie-h, 


Ha-h, 


Hoe-h, 


Hay-h, 


Ha-h, 


Haw-h, 


How-h, 


Kee-h, 


Kie-h, 


Ka-h, 


Koe-h, 


Kay-h, 


Ka-h, 


Kaw-h, 


Kow-h, 


Pee-h, 


Pie-h, 


Pa-h, 


Poe-h, 


Pay-h, 


Pa-h, 


Paw-h, 


Pow-h. 



A second exercise consists in prolonging the radical by 
holding on to the sound of a-w on a level line of pitch, 
before gliding into the vanish of <?-rr on a higher pitch. 
This should be practiced on all the elements susceptible of 
prolongation, and in the three degrees of middle, high, 
and low pitch. Then repeat with different degrees of force 
and loudness, and in forcible whisper with the organs in 
position for the yawn. 

A third exercise prefixes the aspirate h to the vowels, 
thus : ha, hi, he, ho, h-oi, h-ow. Let the radical pitch be 
high, and allow the voice to glide down as low as it can 
go, exhausting the air in the lungs at every effort. Then 
reverse the movement by striking the radical low, and ris- 
ing as high, as the voice will permit. 

It requires considerable practice upon the orotund, in 
the form of elements, syllables, and words, before the 
student can read for any length of time with this acquired 
command of the enlarged position of the organs, and with 



154 Murdoch's Elocution. 

the force requisite to produce the effect desired; but the 
mere practice of the orotund cultivates the natural quality 
of voice, giving it firmness and clearness. 

The explosion of the radical (see ^[58), in connection 
with the orotund produces that subsonorous resonance that 
is the unmistakable evidence of culture in the human 
voice. All exercises in the orotund require to be varied in 
pitch as in the natural quality of voice. 

132. Select sentences abounding in syllables in which 
the long, open vowels predominate; after giving them in a 
forcible whisper and a guttural aspiration, deep and loud, 
then vociferate them powerfully in middle, high, and low 
pitch, thus : 

" O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers!" 

"The moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave !" 

«' Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole, 
Or o'er sotne haunted stream, with fond delay 

(Round a holy calm diffusing, 

Love of peace and lonely musing,) 
In hollow murmurs died away." 

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean — roll!" 

133* Vociferation, or the shout, is an excellent means 
of developing all the breadth and richness that a voice is 
capable of. The following passages from "King John" 
should be given with the organs in the position for the 
orotund, as described above, and a strong action of the 
diaphragm; shouting them out with all the force the student 
can command, without straining the organs. At first one 
or two lines may be given, and it is much better to 
commit them to memory, as the speaker is more natural 
when free from the book. After the exercise becomes 



Orotund, with Practice Exercises. 155 

more familiar to the student, it should be continued for 
half an hour at a time. Very few persons realize how 
much the voice may be developed by these practices in 
vociferation, but as they are very forcible, they should be 
used gradually. The heralds are upon the walls, the kings 
upon the plains below, consequently the tones should be 
forcibly expelled, as if speaking to persons above you, as 
in the kings speeches; and again the heralds and citizen's 
replies, as though the voice was thrown down from a 
height. 

The ultimate use of this practice is to bring out the full 
quality of the voice, and thereby produce the effect of the 
orotund in every degree of pitch, energized force, and 
sonorousness. In fact, to develop the natural speaking 
sounds into the breadth and richness of a vocality adapted 
to the highest range of dramatic expression, and the sub- 
limity and grandeur of sacred poetry, or the noblest flight 
of inspired oratory. 

134. The exercise of the laugh in three degrees of pitch, 
on the syllables huh, ha, ha, ha, is an admirable practice 
for the orotund. 

[Citizens upon the Walls. ~\ 

Citizen. — Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls ? 
King Philip. — 'Tis France, for England, 
King John. — England, for itself. 

You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects, — 
King Philip. — You loving men of Angiers, Authur's subjects, 
Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle — 
King John. — For our advantage ; therefore hear us first. 

These flags of France, that are advanced here 
Before the eye and prospect of your town, 
Have hither march'd to your endamagement: 
The cannons have their bowels full of wrath, 
And ready mounted are they to spit forth 
Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls: 



156 Mitrdoctis Elocution. 

All preparation for a bloody siege 

And merciless proceeding by these French 

Confronts your city's eyes, your winking gates ; 

And, but for our approach, those sleeping stones, 

That as a waist do girdle you about, 

By the compulsion of their ordnance 

By this time from their fixed beds of lime 

Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made 

For bloody power to rush upon your peace. 

But, on the sight of us, your lawful king, 

Who painfully, with much expedient march, 

Have brought a countercheck before your gates, 

To save unscratch'd your city's threaten'd cheeks, 

Behold, the French, amaz'd, vouchsafe a parle ; 

And now, instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire, 

To make a shaking fever in your walls, 

They shoot but calm words, folded up in smoke, 

To make a faithless error in your ears: 

Which trust accordingly, kind citizens, 

And let us in. Your king, whose labor'd spirits, 

Forwearied in this action of swift speed, 

Craves harborage within your city walls." 



King John. — Speak on, with favor; we are bent to hear. 
First Citizen. — That daughter there of Spain, the lady Blanch, 
Is near to England : look upon the years 
Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid ; 
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty, 
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch ? 
If zealous love should go in search of virtue, 
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch? 
If love ambitious sought a match of birth, 
Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanch ? 
, Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth, 

Is the young Dauphin every way complete : 
If not complete of, say he is not she ; 
And she again wants nothing, to name want, 
If want it be not, that she is not he : 
He is the half part of a blessed man, 
Left to be finished by such a she ; 



Orotund, with Practice Exercises. 157 

And she a fair divided excellence, 
Whose fullness of perfection lies in him. 

— "King John," SHAKESPEARE, 



EFFUSIVE OROTUND. 

1 1 who essayed to sing in earlier days, 
The Thanatopsis and the hymn to death, 
Wake now the hymn of Immortality. 
Yet once again, O man, come forth and view 
The haunts of nature ; walk the waving fields, 
Enter the silent groves, or pierce again 
The depths of the untrodden wilderness, 
And she will teach thee. Thou hast learned before 
One lesson — and her hymn of death hath fallen 
With melancholy sweetness on thine ear ; 
Yet she shall teach thee with a myriad tongue 
That life is thine — life in uncounted forms — 
Stealing in silence through the hidden roots, 
In every branch that swings — in green leaves, 
And waving grain, and the gay summer flowers 
That gladden the beholder. Listen, now, 
And she shall teach thee that the dead have slept 
But to awaken in more glorious forms, 
And that the mystery of the seed's decay 
Is but the promise of the coming life. 
Each towering oak that lifts its living head 
To the broad sunlight, in eternal strength, 
Glories to tell thee how the acorn died. 



So live, that when the mighty caravan, 
Which halts one night-time in the vale of death, 
Shall strike its white tents for the morning march ; 
Thou shalt mount onward to the eternal hills, 
Thy foot unwearied and thy strength renewed, 
Like the strong eagle for the upward flight." 

— " A Vision of Immortality" Bryant. 



158 Murdoch's Elocution. 



REVERENCE. 

"Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, Thou art very 
great ; Thou art clothed with honor and majesty ; who coverest 
thyself with light as with a garment ; who stretchest out the 
heavens like a curtain : who layeth the beams of His chambers in 
the waters : who maketh the clouds His chariot; who walketh upon 
the wings of the wind ; who laid the foundations of the earth, that 
it should not be removed forever." 

— " The Book of Psalms." 



ADORATION. 

"Thou from primeval nothingness didst call, 
First chaos, then existence ; — Lord ! on Thee 
Eternity had its foundation ; — all 
Sprang forth from Thee ; — of light, joy, harmony, 
Sole origin : — all life, all beauty, Thine. 
Thy word created all, and doth create ; 
Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine ; 
Thou art, and wert, and shalt be ! Glorious, 
Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate ! 
Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround ; 
Upheld by Thee, by Thee inspired with breath ! 
Thou the beginning with the end hast bound, 
And beautifully mingled life and death ! 
As sparks mount upward from the fiery blaze, 
So suns are born, so worlds spring forth from Thee ; 
And as the spangles in the sunny rays 
Shine around the silver snow, the pageantry 
Of heaven's bright army glitters in Thy praise." 

" God" Derzhavin. 



THE SUBLIME IN THE FORM OF NUMEROUS PROSE. 

" Suddenly the notes of the deep-laboring organ burst upon the 
ear, falling with doubled and redoubled intensity, and rolling, as 
it were, huge billows of sound. How well do their volume and 



Orotund, with Practice Exercises. 159 

grandeur accord with this mighty building] With what pomp do 
they swell through its vast vaults, and breathe their awful harmony 
through these caves of death, and make the silent sepulchre vocal ! 
And now they rise in triumph and acclamation, heaving higher 
and higher their accordant notes, and piling sound on sound. — And 
now they pause, and the soft voices of the choir break out into 
sweet gushes of melody ; they soar aloft, and warble along the 
roof, and seem to play about these lofty vaults like the pure airs of 
heaven. Again the pealing organ heaves its thrilling thunders, 
compressing air into music, and rolling it forth upon the soul. 
What long-drawn cadences! What solemn, sweeping concords! 
It grows more and more dense and powerful — it fills the vast pile, 
and seems to jar the very walls — the ear is stunned — the senses are 
overwhelmed. And now it is winding up in full jubilee — it is rising 
from the earth to heaven — the very soul seems rapt away, and floated 
upwards on this swelling tide of harmony." 

"The Sketch-book'' Irving. 



SPLENDOR. 

1 But lo ! the dome — the vast and wondrous dome, 

To which Diana's marvel was a cell — 
Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb! 

I have beheld the Ephesian's miracle — 
Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwell 

The hyena and the jackal in their shade ; 
I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell 

Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have survey'd 

Its sanctuary the while the usurping Moslem pray'd ; 

But thou, of temples old, or altars new, 

Standest alone — with nothing like to thee — 
Worthiest of God, the holy and the true. 

Since Zion's desolation, when that He 
Forsook his former city, what could be, 

Of earthly structures, in his honor piled, 
Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty, 

Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisled 

In the eternal ark of worship undefiled." 

11 At St. Peter* s at Rome," Byron. 



160 Murdoctis Elocution. 



Expulsive Orotund, 
poetic fervor. 

; Waken, lords and ladies gay, 
To the greenwood haste away; 
We can show you where he lies, 
Fleet of foot, and tall of size ; 
We can show the marks he made, 
When 'gainst the oak his antlers fray'd ; 
You shall see him brought to bay, 
Waken, lords and ladies gay. 

; Louder, louder chant the lay, 
Waken, lords and ladies gay! 
Tell them youth, and mirth, and glee, 
Run a course as well as we ; 
Time, stern huntsman ! who can baulk, 
Staunch as hound, and fleet as hawk ; 
Think of this, and rise with day, 
Gentle lords and ladies gay." 

— "Hunting Sojig," Scott. 



High, Full Orotund. 

" Oh ! listen, man ! 
A voice within us speaks the startling word : 
' Man, thou shalt never die ! ' Celestial voices 
Hymn it round our souls; according harps, 
By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars 
Of morning sang together, sound forth still 
The song of our great immortality : 
Thick-clustering orbs, and this our fair domain, 
The tall, dark mountains, and the deep-toned seas, 
Join in this solemn, universal song." 

— Dana. 



Orotund, with Practice Exercises. 



61 



" O now, forever, 
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! 
Farewell the plumed troops, and the big wars, 
That make ambition virtue ! O, farewell ! 
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, 
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, 
The royal banner; and all quality, 
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war ! 
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats 
The immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit, 
Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!" 

— " OtJullo" Shakespeare. 



IMPASSIONED EXPRESSION. — PATRIOTISM. 

"Oh, sweet is the sound of the shuttle and loom 
When the lilies of peace fill the land with perfume ! 
Then cheerily echoes the axe from the hill, 
While the bright waters sing on the wheel of the mill, 
And the anvil rings out like a bell through the day, 
And the wagoner's song cheers his team on the way, 
Till the bugles sound here, and the drums rattle there, 
And the banners of War stream afar on the air. 

"Then wild is the hour, and fearful the day, 
When the shuttle is dropt for the sword and the fray, 
When the woodman is felling a foe at each stroke, 
And the miller is blackened with powder and smoke, 
When the smith wields the blade in his terrible grip, 
And the wagoner's rifle cracks true as his whip : 
The bugles sound here, and the drums rattle there, 
While the banners of War stream afar on the air." 



-Read. 



DETERMINED PURPOSE. 



M. E.— 14. 



Hear what Highland Nora said : 
'The Earlie's son I will not wed, 
Should all the race of nature die, 



1 62 Murdoch's Elocution. 

And none be left but he and I. 
For all the gold, for all the gear, 
And all the lands both far and near, 
That ever valor lost or won, 
I would not wed the Earlie's son.' 



'The swan,' she said, 'the lake's clear breast 
May barter for the eagle's nest ; 
The Awe's fierce stream may backward turn, 
Ben Cruichan fall, and crush Kilchurn ; 
Our kilted clans, when blood is high, 
Before their foes may turn and fly ; 
But I, were all these marvels done, 
Would never wed the Earlie's son.' " 

— " JVora's Vow." Scott. 



ADORATION. 

The movement passes from the effusive to the fuller 
effect of the expulsive in the last stanza. 

" Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody, 
So sweet, we know not we are listening to it, 
Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought, 
Yea, with my life, and life's own secret joy; 
Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused, 
Into the mighty vision passing — there, 
As in her natural form, swell' d vast to heaven. 



Awake, my soul ! not only passive praise 
Thou owest ! not alone these swelling tears, 
Mute thanks and secret ecstasy ! Awake, 
Voice of sweet song ! Awake, my heart, awake ! 
Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn ! " 

— "Hymn to Mont Blanc" COLERIDGE. 



Orotund, with Practice Exercises. 163 



DECLAMATORY FORCE. 

" True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It can not be 
brought from afar. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they 
will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every 
way, but they can not compass it. It must exist in the man, in 
the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expres- 
sion, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it, — they can 
not reach it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a 
fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with 
spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the 
schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, 
shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their 
wives, their children, and their country hang on the decision of the 
hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all 
elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels re- 
buked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then 
patriotism is eloquent ; then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear 
conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, 
the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beam- 
ing from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole 
man onward, right onward, to his object, — this, this is eloquence; 
or, rather, it is something greater and higher than all eloquence: 
it is action, — noble, sublime, God-like action." 

— " The Nature of True Eloquence," Daniel Webster. 



IMPASSIONED FORCE. 



' Yield, madman, yield ! Thy horse is down, 
Thou hast nor lance, nor shield ; 

Fly! I will grant thee time.' 'This flag 
Can neither fly nor yield ! ' " 

"Speed, Ringbolt, to your leader speed! 
And bid him know the stealthy foe 
With double strength comes up behind : 
It was but now I saw him wind 
From out the valley road below." 



— BOKER. 



-Read. 



164 Murdoch's Elocution. 



IMPASSIONED FORCE. WEEPING UTTERANCE. 



'That I did love thee, Coesar, O, 'tis true: 
If then thy spirit look upon us now, 
Shall it not grieve thee, dearer than thy death, 
To see thy Antony making his peace, 
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes, 
Most noble ! in the presence of thy corse ? 
Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds, 
Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood, 
It would become me better, than to close 
In terms of friendship with thine enemies. 
Pardon me, Julius! — Here wast thou bay'd, brave hart; 
Here didst thou fall ; and here thy hunters stand, 
Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe. 
O world ! thou wast the forest to this hart ; 
And this, indeed, O world! the heart of thee. — 
How like a deer, stricken by many princes, 
Dost thou here lie ! " 

— "Julius Casar," SHAKESPEARE. 



PASSIONATE RESOLVE. 



Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea, 

Whose icy current and compulsive course 

Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on 

To the Propontic and the Hellespont, 

Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, 

Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love, 

Till that a capable and wide revenge 

Swallow them up. Now, by yond' marble heaven, 

In the due reverence of a sacred vow 

I here engage my words." 

— "Othello" Shakespeare. 



Orotund, with Practice Exercises. 165 



SHOUTING. 

"And still they heard the battle cry, 
Olea! for Castile! " 

— Geo. II. Boker. 

Advance your standards, draw your willing swords! 
Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully ! 
God, and Saint George ! Richmond and victory ! " 

— Shakespeare. 



Explosive Orotund, 
bold address. 

' What ! while our arms can wield these blades, 
Shall we die tamely? die alone? 
Without one victim to our shades, 
One Moslem heart, where, buried deep, 
The sabre from its toil may sleep? 
No — God of Iran's burning skies ! 
Thou scorn'st the inglorious sacrifice. 
No — though of all earth's hope bereft, 
Life, swords, and vengeance still are left. 
We'll make yon valley's reeking caves 
Live in the awe-struck minds of men, 
Till tyrants shudder, when their slaves 
Tell of the Ghebers' bloody glen. 
Follow, brave hearts ! — this pile remains 
Our refuge still from life and chains." 

— " The Gheber to his Followers" Moore. 



DEFIANCE. 

; Back, ruffians, back ! nor dare to tread 
Too near the body of my dead ! 
Nor touch the living boy; — I stand 



1 66 Murdoch's Elocution, 

Between him and your lawless band ! 
No traitor he — But listen ! I 
Have cursed your master's tyranny. 

'Peace, woman, peace!' the leader cried." 

" The Polish Boy;' Ann S. Stephens. 

IMPRECATION. 



' I charm thy life 
From the weapons of strife, 
From stone and from wood, 
From fire and from flood, 
From the serpent's tooth, 
And the beasts of blood ; 
From sickness I charm thee, 
And time shall not harm thee, 
But earth, which is mine, 
Its fruits shall deny thee ; 
And water shall hear me, 
And know thee and fly thee ; 
And the winds shall not touch thee 
When they pass by thee ; 
And the dews shall not wet thee 
When they fall nigh thee : 
And thou shalt seek death 
To release thee in vain ; 
Thou shalt live in thy pain, 
While Kehama shall reign, 
With a fire in thy heart, 
And a fire in thy brain ; 
And sleep shall obey me, 
And visit thee never, 
And the curse shall be on thee 
For ever and ever." 

— " Curse of AWiama," So U THEY. 



Orotund, with Practice Exercises. 167 



SUPPLICATION. 

'O spare my child, my joy, my pride; 

O give me back my child ! ' she cried : 

• My child ! my child ! ' with sobs and tears, 

She shrieked upon his callous ears." 

— "McLain's Child''' Mackey. 



STERN COMMAND. 

"Turn, turn, thou traitor knight! 
Thou bold tongue in a lady's bower, 
Thou dastard in a tight ! " 

— " Count Candespina) 's Standard" BOKER. 



"Victory! 
Charge, Chester, charge ! On, Stanley, on ! " 

— " Marmion," Scott. 



Slave, do thine office ! 

Strike — as I struck the foe! Strike as I would 
Have struck those tyrants ! Strike deep as my curse ! 
Strike — and but once." 

—"Marino Falieri," Byron. 



TERROR AND CONFUSION. 

; Death ! was the helmsman's hail, 
Death without quarter ! 
Mid-ships with iron keel 
Struck we her ribs of steel ; 
Down her black hull did reel 
Through the black water!" 

— "Skeleton in Armor''' LONGFELLOW. 



1 68 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Aspirated Quality. 

135. The impure, or aspirated, quality of voice, arises 
from the escape, perhaps unconsciously to the speaker, of 
a quantity of air, before it is molded by the organs into 
speech. In the language of excitement, it is caused by 
the force of emotion producing an undue pressure on the 
muscles of the throat, in consequence of which the vocal 
ligaments are strained to so great a degree that they can 
not prevent the escape of a rush of unvocalized breath 
with every sound, and hence the forcible whispering drift 
by which it is characterized. 

The quality, thus caused, indicates, by its harsh and 
discordant effect upon the ear, the unusual and intense 
excitement of the speaker's emotional nature, and pro- 
duces a corresponding disturbance or agitation of feeling 
within the heart of the hearer. 

Its broadest animal effect is heard in the hoarse snarl 
of anger in the dog, which intimates danger to the mind 
of the hearer, and suggests the savage bite which may 
follow. 

The utmost capacity of the vocal organs seems inade- 
quate for the expression of the more intense exclamations 
of fear, alarm, terror, or horror, and they burst forth in a 
hoarse sound that is half vocality and half whisper. Mac- 
duff, on discovering the murder of Duncan, exclaims: 

"O horror! horror! horror! 
Tongue, nor heart, can not conceive, nor name thee ! " 

This impure vocality is also heard in a slight degree in 
the expression of dread, wonder, astonishment, and feel- 
ings akin to these. And it often becomes the habitual 
voice of those who are much exposed to the open air, as 
the sailor or soldier. 



Aspirated Quality. 169 

There is another effect produced by energy of utterance 
in which we hear aspiration; /'. e., with the sound of the 
voice in joy, or any exhilerating emotion, is heard a rush 
of breath, which is most expressive in effect; for example, 
"Joy, joy! shout, shout aloud for joy!" Awe aspirates 
the tone, and in the forms of deep grief is heard this 
escape of breath. 

The utterances of love, in its extreme degrees, not only 
become tremulous, but are also in a measure aspirated. 

136. The cultivation of the whispering function, for ap- 
plication of force to the organs of voice in the produc- 
tion of aspirated quality, in its gentlest form, is the 
primary discipline of vocal culture. See ^[57. 

By this process, the organs are exercised in a manner 
entirely opposite to the practical use of the voice in the 
ordinary affairs of speech. The daily use of the voice, in 
most cases, is to call into play the active agencies of 
vocality in a partial or imperfect exercise of their re- 
spective functions, in consequence of which the full, 
round, and energetic sound of the elements is seldom 
brought out and perfected for the purposes of public ad- 
dress. The whispering process is the initiatory step in 
elementary vocal culture; by this aspirated discipline, the 
amount of muscular effort becomes apparent to the stu- 
dent, from the fact that his effort to produce articulation, 
in the form of whisper, appears more labored than in the 
mechanical exertion necessary to call forth and sustain 
pure vocal effect in its most forcible forms. After the 
articulated whisper has been brought under the control of 
the will, to the full effect of original precision and power, 
and after it has ceased to be used simply as an agent in 
the inception of culture, it becomes the intensifier of 
passion in the rushing sweep of what may be termed the 
fierce blast of excessive breath, as it overrides vocality in 
the expression of the more impassioned forms of epic or 

M. E.-15. 



170 Murdoch's Elocution. 

dramatic description and delineation. Examples in " Cori- 
olanus " and ' ' Macbeth " ; 

" Measureless liar! " 
"I'll fight, till from my limbs my flesh be hacked." 

Thus, it will be seen that the whispering function paves 
the way for all the progressive steps of the student, from 
the lightest forms of vocal force to the full powers of 
the tempestuous whirlwind of speech. 

Exercises in Aspirated Quality. 

" O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow, 
Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die ; 
And let belief and life encounter so, 
As doth the fury of two desperate men, 
Which, in the very meeting, fall and die." 

— " King John," SHAKESPEARE. 

" ' O father, I see a gleaming light ; 
O say, what may it be ? ' 
But the father answered never a word, 
A frozen corpse was he." 

— " The Wreck of the Hesperus" LONGFELLOW. 

"O men with sisters dear! 
O men with mothers and wives ! 
It is not linen you're wearing out, 
But human creatures' lives ! 
Stitch! stitch! stitch! 
In poverty, hunger, and dirt, — 
Sewing at once, with a double thread, 
A shroud as well as a shirt ! " 

— "Song of the Shirt" Hood. 

"Spare me, great God! Lift up my drooping brow; 
I am content to die; but, oh, not now." 

— " Earnest Prayer" Mrs. Norton. 



Exercises in Aspirated Quality. 



JOY. 

"Joy, joy forever! my task is done — 
The gates are passed, and heaven is won ! 
Oh! am I not happy? I am, I am." 

— " Paradise and the Peri," MOORE. 

"When Duncan is asleep, 
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey 
Soundly invite him,) his two chamberlains 
Will I with wine and wassel so convince, 
That memory, the warder of the brain, 
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 
A limbeck only : when in swinish sleep 
Their drenched natures lie, as in death, 
What cannot you and I perform upon 
The unguarded Duncan ? What not put upon 
His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt 
Of our great quell ? " 

— * « Macbeth^ ' ' Shakespeare. 

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined ; 

No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet 

To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet — 

But, hark! — that heavy sound breaks in once more, 

As if tfie clouds its echo ivould repeat ; 

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before! 

Arm! arm! it is! — it is! — the cannon's opening roar." 

— "Battle of Waterloo" Byron. 



Guttural Quality. 

137. The mechanism of the harsh quality of voice 
known as the guttural, or throaty, voice, should be well 
considered and thoroughly understood. It is an element 
of speech of a strongly marked and expressive nature, 
partaking of the same kind though differing in degree 



172 Murdoch's Elocution. 

from that peculiar effect known as aspirated vocality. 
They both play a prominent part in the offices of spoken 
language, being inseparable from its expressive functions; 
and thus defects of voice produce effects. But, on the con- 
trary, such qualities of voice are repugnant to the prin- 
ciples underlying the structure of song. Therefore, the 
guttural and aspirated voices should be familiar to the 
speaker and singer, in order that the former should use 
them as effective agents in his art, and the latter learn 
how to avoid them as damaging elements in singing. The 
one may be said to resemble the growl of a dog, while the 
other his snarl. 

The guttural is produced by a suffocation of the voice, 
which is crushed and squeezed, as it were, between the 
roots of the tongue and the sides of the pharynx. This 
action, when deep-seated, causes that grating or rubbing 
which is the marked characteristic of this quality. 

While the more aspirated, rasping, hissing form of aspir- 
ation is produced by a lighter pressure of the same parts, 
and near approach to the soft palate or uvula. The effect 
of such violent and suppressed efforts of muscular action on 
the breath, in the language of an old writer, "is to cause 
a swelling discontent in the throat, and to suffocate and 
strangle the air in its outward passage." A spiteful utter- 
ance of the first few words of the following lines will 
afford the means of exhibiting an aspirated form of utter- 
ance : ' ' Wretch I you could enjoy yourself like a butcher's dog 
in the shambles" while the concluding parts of the sentence 
offer the means of showing a modified form of the guttural, 
as thus : ' ' While the slaughter of the brave we?it on around 
you, but you shall die, base dog." 

The following words from Shakespeare will afford ma- 
terial for both guttural and aspirated qualities : 

"Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, 
For 'tis of aspicks' tongues." 



Examples i?i Guttural Quality 



73 



The elements should be practiced in the form of the 

concrete intervals (see Chapter VII), and also through the 

different forms of the wave, with the organs in position for 

the guttural quality; then follow with tables of words, 

such as : 

I. 



Revenge, 
Havoc, 


Grudge, 
Horror, 


Hate, 
Avaunt, 


Accursed, 
Hence, 


Fury, 

Rancor, 


Rage, 

Scourge, 

Infernal, 


Cur, 

Inhuman, 

Gnash, 


Slave, 

Savage, 

Crush, 


Wretch, 

Cruel, 

Hell, 


Ape, 

Hateful, 

Gall, 


Murder, 


Cursed, 


Sorcerer, 


Christian, 


Agreed, 


Charge, 


Harsh, 


Rotten, 


Fraught, 


Groans. 



"Which, if not victory, is yet revenge!" 

" Batter their walls down, raze them to the ground." 

" Mend, and charge home, 
Or by the fires of heaven, I '11 leave the foe, 
And make me wars on you: look to 't: Come on ! " 

" ' Curse on him!'' quoth false Sextus: 
' Will not the villain drown ? 
But for this stay, ere close of day 
We should have sacked the town ! ' " 

" Horatius at t/ie Bridge," Macaulay. 

" Still grew my bosom then, 
Still as a stagnant fen ! 
Hateful to me were men, 
The sunlight hateful!" 

— "Skeleton in Armor,'''' LONGFELLOW. 



" I see it is a trick 
Got up betwixt you and the woman there. 
I must be taught my duty, and by you! 
You knew my word was law, and yet you dared 
To slight it. Well, — for I will take the boy ; 
But go you hence, and never see me more." 

"Dora,' 1 '' Tennyson. 



174 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Aspiration. 

"Angels and ministers of grace defend us! — 
Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, — 
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, 
Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, 
Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, 
That I will speak to thee." 

"Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, 
You heav'nly guards ! — what would your gracious figure ? " 

— "Hamlet," Shakespeare. 

"How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here? 
I think it is the weakness of my eyes 
That shapes this monstrous apparition. 
It comes upon me: — Art thou any thing? 
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, 
That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare? — 
Speak to me what thou art." 

— "Julius Casar," Shakespeare. 

Lady Macbeth. — Alack! I am afraid they have awak'd, 

And 'tis not done — the attempt, and not the deed, 
Confounds us: — Hark! — I laid their daggers ready, 
He could not miss them. — Had he not resembled 
My father as he slept I had done 't : — My husband! 

Macbeth. — I have done the deed : — Didst thou not hear a noise ? 

Lady M. — I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry. 
Did not you speak? 

Macbeth.— When ? 

Lady M.— Now. 

Macbeth. — As I descended? 

Lady M. — Ay. 

Macbeth.— Hark ! 

Who lies i' th' seeond chamber? 

Lady M. — Donalbain. 

Macbeth.— This is a sorry sight. 

Lady M. — A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. 



Pectoral Quality. 175 

Macbeth. — There's one did laugh in his sleep, 

And onecry'd, " murder! " that they did wake each other ; 
I stood and heard them: but they did say their prayers, 
And address'd them again to sleep. 

— "Macbeth" Shakespeare. 



Pectoral Quality. 

138. All emotions that call into play the pectoral 
quality, sink the voice into the lowest part of the chest, 
causing it to become the "voce de petto" (voice of the 
chest). Human suffering, whether it be mental or phys- 
ical, causes the ringing vocality to be buried in deep rever- 
berations of the thoracic cavity, resembling the groan, as 
aspiration resembles the sigh. It is mingled with aspira- 
tion. The aspirated orotund is often confounded with the 
pectoral. This quality may be easily recognized in King 
John's voice in his reply to Prince Henry : 



Prince Henry. — How fares your majesty? 

King John. — Poison'd, — ill fare; — dead, forsook, cast off: 
And none of you will bid the winter come, 
To thrust his icy fingers in my maw ; 
Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course 
Through my burn'd bosom ; nor entreat the north 
To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips. 

— " King John," Shakespeare. 



Romeo. — Courage, man ; the hurt can not be much. 
Mercutio. — No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church 
door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to- 
morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am 
peppered, I warrant, for this world; — a plague o' both 
your houses ! 

— "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare. 



176 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Shylock. — I pray you, give me leave to go from hence ; 
I am not well. 

'■'■Merchant of Venice" Shakespeare. 



PHYSICAL EXHAUSTION. 

Adam. — Dear master, I can go no further: O, I die for food! Here 
lie I down, and measure out my grave. Farewell, kind 
master. 

"As You Like It," Shakespeare. 



SICKNESS. 

1 And wherefore should these good news make me sick ? 
I should rejoice now at this happy news ; 
And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy : — 

me ! come near me, now I am much ill. 

1 pray you, take me up, and bear me hence 
Into some other chamber; softly, pray. 

Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends; 
Unless some dull and favorable hand 
Will whisper music to my weary spirit." 

"Henry IV," Part II, SHAKESPEARE. 



Falsetto Quality. 

Of this quality, after much investigation, we find little 
that is at all satisfactory. All systems differ with regard 
to the causes by which it is produced. We can only 
repeat, in Rush's language: "The falsetto is a peculiar 
voice, in the higher degrees of pitch, beginning where the 
natural voice breaks, or outruns its compass." 

The falsetto would seem to be produced by the air being 
thrown immediately, from the glottis, up into the head, 



Falsetto Quality. 177 

and there reverberating; however this may be, the student 
of elocution requires some practice on the elements, words, 
and sentences in this quality to enable him to give effect 
to the child's voice, the old man or woman's, and also to 
produce a weird effect in the voice, by adding some hollow 
depth to it, in opening the organs wide, and yet directing 
the stream of air to the head. The entire compass of the 
voice should be under the student's control. The falsetto 
is, however, much overdone in many cases, and requires 
judgment and taste to regulate it. 



Chapter XV. 

Practice on the Concrete as affected by the Various Forms of 
Stress and the Tremor. 

139. It was stated in Chapter IV that under certain 
modifications of emotion, or intensity in the state of mind, 
the syllabic concrete and wave lose their plain, equable 
form, and become affected by a particular concentration 
of force upon their different parts, or throughout their 
whole extent. 

The next step in the practice of the elementary exercise 
of the voice should be to obtain a facility in the execution 
of the concrete under the modification of the various 
stresses. These have been classified as : Radical, Final, 
Median, Thorough, Compound, and the Tremor or Inter- 
mittent Stress. 

In no respect has Dr. Rush's system been so much mis- 
understood as in relation to radical stress, this having often 
been interpreted and taught as a function exclusively of 
violent force. 

Forcible explosion is appropriate only to emotional or 
impassioned speech; the lightest form of radical stress 
serves simply to give a clear and penetrating character to 
the syllables of discourse. It would have been easier to 
have impressed this difference upon the mind, could a 
term have been invented by which this delicate radical (or 
root of vocality) could have stood apart from stress. 
Abruptness was the generic term given it among the 
different modes of the voice, "because its characteristic 
explosion is peculiar, and quite distinct from force, with 
(178) 



Practice on the Concrete. 



179 



which, from its admitting degrees of intensity, it might 
seem to be identical." 

The constant use of the forcible radical renders speech 
sharp, and will cause the voice to become hard and me- 
tallic. The short, sharp radical is heard only in the burst 
of anger, the yell of rage, and such emotions as express 
themselves in abrupt, imperative commands. Although 
heard in authority, that is more dignified and more delib- 
erate, it is combined with greater volume of sound, which 
mellows and softens it. Joy, hope, and exultation are 
rapid in movement, and naturally require this form of 
stress. 

The lighter degrees of radical stress being, then, most 
called into play, they should be the most exercised, with 
organs freely opened, and held flexibly. Radical stress is 
one of the constituent elements that imparts brilliancy to 
animated and gay styles of composition. 

The student has already had elemental studies in radical 
stress ; he should next practice it in the form of the con- 
crete intervals (Chapter VII) on the following tables of 
mutable, immutable, and indefinite syllables. 

Radical stress is best exhibited in the short vowels, 
when it displays emphatic impressiveness on short quantity; 
but it is also employed in the mutable and indefinite sylla- 
bles, yet it always contracts them into shorter quantity. 

Table of Immutable Syllables. 



Wicked, 


Afflict, 


Lot, 


Dock, 


Bet, 


Mop, 


Back, 


Trap, 


Not, 


Duck, 


Hit, 


Fop, 


Hack, 


Mock, 


Got, 


Luck, 


Hot, 


Cat, 


Attack, 


Buck, 


Pot, 


Beck, 


Cob, 


Cub, 


Lock, 


Rock, 


Punish, 


Push, 


Bob, 


Map, 


Cab, 


Upper, 


Tatler, 


Pat, 


But, 


Cutter, 


Batter, 


Cup, 


Sup, 


Patter, 


Butter, 


Rut, 


Bitter, 


Mutter, 


Top, 


Tip, 


Pack, 


Sipping 


Fickle, 


Picket, 


Pick, 


Lick, 


Fitter, 


Cutting 


Flap, 


Dot, 


Not, 


Dump, 


Lump, 


Rap. 



i8o 



Murdoch ' s Elocution. 



Table of Mutable Syllables. 



What, 


Ape, 


Grasp, 


Cape, 


Grope, 


Gait, 


Grape, 


Bliss, 


Truth, 


Scrape, 


Get, 


Fate, 


Push, 


Crape, 


Base, 


Birch, 


Drape, 


Tract, 


Trump, 


Not, 


Blight, 


Barb, 


Dot, 


Bold, 


Mate, 


Garb, 


Curse, 


Wake, 


Yet, 


Add, 


Craft, 


Earth, 


Gab, 


Sharp, 


Beset, 


Arch, 


Knock, 


Rub, 


March, 


Frisk, 


Black, 


Forth, 


Parch, 


Brisk, 


North, 


Starch, 


Stript, 


Nook, 


Rook, 


Smart, 


Big, 


Struck, 


Beat, 


Hod, 


Part, 


Brag, 


Odd, 


Slab, 


Blood, 


Hate, 


Cask, 


Bad, 


Bid, 


Dark, 


Dread, 


Cart, 


Wretch, 


Drab, 


Carp, 


Dart, 


Tub, 


Cork, 


Crack, 


Rob, 


Mark, 


Grunt, 


Rig, 


State, 


Dash, 


Got, 


Dwarf, 


Gap, 


Mad, 


Wharf. 



Table of Indefinite Syllables. 



Stars, 


Where, 


Home, 


Care, 


Flows, 


Brow, 


Strive, 


Flowed, 


Bare, 


Prose, 


King, 


Dare, 


Aim, 


Shorn, 


Lull, 


Aid, 


Morn, 


Twilled 


Warm, 


Barn, 


Done, 


Low, 


Furl, 


Wild, 


Knell, 


Born, 


Thee, 


Times, 


Rare, 


Earl, 


Firm, 


Pure, 


Moved, 


Wings, 


Stern, 


Prime, 


Loam, 


Serve, 


Girl, 


Lime, 


Prone, 


Move, 


Arm, 


More, 


Lone, 


Roam, 


Bone, 


Join, 


Brave, 


Harm, 


Balm, 


Calm, 


Boil, 


Growl, 


Howl, 


Hair, 


Reel, 


Crane, 


Now, 


Tune, 


Lure, 


Joy, 


Ream, 


Cream, 


Rave, 


Ray, 


Crown, 


Nine, 


Grown, 


Moan, 


Rule, 


Spoil, 


Full, 


Vow, 


Foil, 


Toy, 


Groin, 


Roll, 


Stare, 


Call, 


Bull, 


Row, 


Bow, 


More. 



Radical stress will be exemplified in the sound of the 
element a, in all, in the imperative command, Attend, all! 
repeated six times with increasing force and the different 
intervals. 



Examples in U7iimpassioned Radical. 18 



Examples in Unimpassioned Radical. 

44 Within its shade of elm and oak 

The church of Berkley Manor stood ; 
There Sunday found the rural folk, 
And some esteemed of gentle blood." 

— Buchanan Read. 

" It was the time when lilies blow, 
And clouds are highest up in air; 
Lord Ronald brought a lily white doe, 
To give his cousin Lady Clare." 

—Tennyson. 

"She knows but very little, and in little are we one; 
The beauty rare, that more than hid that great defect is gone. 
My parvenu relations now deride my homely wife, 
And pity me that I am tied to such a clod, for life." 

— D. R. Locke. 

"The angel with great joy received his guests, 
And gave them presents of embroidered vests, 
And velvet mantles with rich ermine lined, 
And rings and jewels of the rarest kind. 
Then he departed with them o'er the sea 
Into the lovely land of Italy, 
Whose loveliness was more resplendent made 
By the mere passing of that cavalcade, 
With plumes and cloaks, and housings, and the stir 
Of jeweled bridle and of golden spur." 

— Longfellow. 

The clear radical movement not only imparts clearness 
and brilliancy to language that is animated in its character, 
but it gives a penetrating power to the voice that carries 
it through space, and enables the speaker to put every 



1 82 Murdoch's Elocution. 

syllabic utterance upon the ear of the auditor without any 
effort upon the part of the latter. This constitutes the 
great charm of delivery. 



Clear Radical Movement — Natural Quality. 

"And the frost, too, has a melodious ministry. You will hear 
its crystals shoot in the dead of a clear night, as if the moonbeams 
were splintering like arrows in the ground ; and you listen to it 
the more earnestly, that it is the going on of one of the most 
cunning and beautiful of nature's deep mysteries. I know nothing 
so wonderful as the shooting of a crystal. God has hidden its 
principle as yet from the inquisitive eye of the philosopher, and 
we must be content to gaze on its exquisite beauty, and listen in 
mute wonder to the noise of its invisible workmanship. It is too 
fine a knowledge for us. We shall comprehend it when we know 
how the morning stars sang together." 

— N. P. Willis. 



Radical Stress. — Impassioned Radical, 
anger and scorn. — Explosive Orotund. Rapid Movement. 

"Ho! cravens, do ye fear him? 
Slaves, traitors ! have ye flown ? 
Ho, cowards ! have ye left me 
To meet him here alone!" 

— Albert G. Greene. 



command. — Explosive Orotund. Rapid Moveme?it. 

"Hark! the insulting foeman's cry — 
They are coming ! quick, my falchion ! 
Let me front them ere I die." 

— W. H. Lytle. 



Fi7ial Stress. 183 



"For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl." 

" Othello," SHAKES] I 

"Chieftains, forego! 
I hold the first who strikes, my foe. 
Madmen, forbear your frantic jar! 
What ! is the Douglas fallen so far, 
His daughter's hand is deemed the spoil 
Of such dishonorable broil ? '" 

— "Douglas,'" Scott. 

"'Down, down,' cried Mar, 'your lances down! 
Bear back both friend and foe ! ' 



My banner-man, advance! 
I see,' he cried, ' their column shake, 
Now, gallants ! for your ladies' sake, 
Upon them with the lance!'" 



Final Stress. 



— Scott. 



140. Let the following question be uttered with indig- 
nant surprise, and the voice will rapidly traverse the em- 
phatic /, and end with a sudden jerk, or forcible fullness 
at the termination : Did he dare to say I did it ? This will 
illustrate the character of the final stress. 

The form of this stress is precisely the reverse of the 
radical, the weight or fullness of the voice being placed at 
the close of the syllabic impulse, where it leaves off as 
suddenly or abruptly as the radical begins. Final stress 
requires more time for its execution than the radical, as 
the voice must traverse some perceptible extent of inter- 
val before performing this reversed abruptness. It can 
not, therefore, be executed on short tonics or immutable 
syllables. "Final stress may be heard in the speech of 



184 Murdoch's Elocution. 

the natives of Ireland, many of whom apply it to simple 
rise and fall, or wave, on all the principal words of a 
sentence." It produces that Irish jerk, effective only in 
the brogue. 

The character of final stress is best illustrated by the 
sound produced in the natural sneeze or hiccough, thus : 
yux. It has also been well likened to the sound which 
seems to be forced from the organs of the workman when 
he brings down his sledge hammer with a heavy blow, — a 
sort of forcible " grunt," beginning lightly, progressing 
rapidly, and ending with a bang or sudden accumulation 
of force at the close. 

This stress is practicable on all of the intervals of in- 
tonation, rising or falling, and on all the waves, in the 
latter always quickening their movements, and impressing 
the final constituents. It may be given (and is so em- 
ployed in its various uses), in the expression of emotion 
and passion, with every degree of enforcement, from a mod- 
erate energy which simply defines the close of a syllable 
with the weight of a strong, firm pressure, to the vivid 
force which marks it as with a sudden and powerful blow. 

It is most effectively exhibited on those mutable and in- 
definite syllables ending with an abrupt atonic or subtonic 
sound, the latter contributing to the abrupt ending of the 
sound which characterizes this stress. Thus let the syllable 
hak be begun smoothly, pass lightly into the vocality, and 
ended with force, and there will be a sudden termination 
of the sound as it is thrown, as it were, against the atonic 
k, producing this peculiar suddenness of effect at the close 
of a syllable. The same effect, however, may be produced 
by properly disciplined organs on any combination of ele- 
ments not immutable, or any single element not atonic, as 
in the instance first given of the stress on /. 

141. Great care must be observed in the exaggerations 
of this function for forcible elementary practice, especially 



Examples i?i Final Stress. 185 

on the diphthongal or long tonics, not to allow the voice to 
perform a double impulse, as it were, giving to the stressed 
part of the sound the effect of the beginning of a new 
concrete. 

The sound should begin with a clear, but light opening, 
traverse the concrete with a swift and unbroken directness, 
and fall, at the close, like a heavy weight. 

An intelligent exercise of this stress upon the elements 
and syllables will insure a realization of its generic charac- 
ter as an impatient, angry, and determined enforcement of 
the interrogative; and also of the positive character of 
the rising or falling concrete intervals, in the expression of 
determined purpose, earnest resolve, stern rebuke, con- 
tempt, astonishment, sullenness, and stubborn passion; it 
is heard, also, in peevishness and impatience, and some- 
times in grief. 

On the intervals and waves of the semitone, final stress 
produces the effect of sobbing. The preceding tables of 
mutable and indefinite syllables, and their extension on 
the concrete should be carefully practiced, with every 
degree of force, until the organs become accustomed to 
its ready execution, and the ear familiar with its effect. 

Final stress will express impatience and displeasure on 
the element and word in the following: " I said all, not 
one or two." 



Examples for Practice on Final Stress, 
stern rebuke. 

' ' In faith J cried Francis, ' rightly done ! ' and he rose from where 

he sat ; 
* No loz>eS quoth he, * but vanity, sets love a task like that.'''''' 

— " Translation," LEIGH HUNT. 
M. E.— 16. 



1 86 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Yield, madman, yield ! thy horse is down, 
Thou hast nor lance nor shield ; 
Fly ! — I will grant thee time. ' ' This flag 
Can neither fly nor yield '! " '" 

— " Count Candespina 's Standard," Boker. 



" Lord cardinal, 
To you I speak." 

" Your pleasure, madam ? 



"The queen is obstinate, 
Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and 
Disdainful to be tried by it; 'tis not well. 
She's going away." 

' I will not tarry ; no, nor ever more, 
Upon this business my appearance make 
In any of their courts." 

— Extracts from "Henry VIII" SHAKESPEARE. 



IMPATIENT EXCLAMATION. 

Ye gods, ye gods! Must I endure all this?" 

— "Julius Ccesar," Shakespeare 

"O that I had him, 
With six Aufidiuses, or more, his tribe, 
To use my lawful sword ! " 

— " Coriolanus," SHAKESPEARE. 



DETERMINED PURPOSE. 

"On such occasions, I will place myself on the extreme bound- 
ary of my right, and bid defiance to the arm that would push me 
from it." 

— Webster. 



Median Stress. 187 



Hear me yet, good Shylock." 



Pll have my bond ; speak not against my bond : 
/ have sworn an oath that I zuill have my bond.'''' 



I pray thee, hear me speak.'''' 

Pll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak: 

Pll have my bond, and therefore speak no more." 



' ' Follow not : 
I'll have no speaking: I will have my bond." 

— Extracts from "Merchant of Venice,'' 1 Shakespeare. 



Median Stress. 

142. Median stress is an enforcement of the middle por- 
tion of the concrete. The sound beginning with a moder- 
ate degree of force, increases gradually in volume and 
strength to a swelling fullness, and then diminishes again 
gradually, and terminates with an equable vanish. Thus, 
in the sentence, "/ am the resurrection and the life" the 
dignified grandeur of the utterance will produce this move- 
ment on the syllable I. 

The character of the median stress may be illustrated by 
the gradual increase and diminution of force and fullness 
of sound in the yawn. This form of force can only be 
employed on syllables of indefinite quantity, as its peculiar 
construction implies extension of time; and as the latter 
generally continues the voice into the wave, the median 
stress or swell is most frequently and effectively employed 
on this form of intonation. In this case, the culmination 
of force and fullness is applied at the juncture of the two 
constituents. 



1 88 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Take the word Hail! as an adoring salutation, and 
this form of stress may be exhibited on the wave of the 
second, third, or fifth, according to the degree of directive 
energy in the feeling, swelling to its greatest fullness at the 
point of flexure or bending of the wave. 

The median stress may also be applied to the rising and 
falling intervals of the fifth and octave, but it is not prac- 
ticable on those of lesser extent, except when they are 
duplicated in the form of the wave. 

Median stress we will find to be that form of expressive 
force used to distinguish syllables in language of a highly 
dignified, elevated, or exalted character, and is employed 
in all degrees of enforcement, from the most delicate full- 
ness of sound, to a firm, strong swelling energy. 

An excellent exercise to begin with, in seeking to acquire 
a command over the median stress, is to practice the sim- 
ple function of yawning on the syllable ah, giving as much 
vocality as possible to the sound, and extending and swell- 
ing to its fullest extent. 

The stress should next be practiced on the long tonic 
elements and indefinite syllables, in conjunction with the 
less extended waves, at first, and in its gentlest form of 
swell; — then with the wider waves and intervals in all its 
gradations of enforcement. 

In each case, let the sound be clearly opened with that 
delicate organic action which constitutes the lightest form 
of the radical stress, (otherwise it will lack clear quality 
and definite character,) and gradually and firmly swelled 
to a full volume, and then as gradually diminished. The 
swelling sound must never be continued for an instant on 
a level line of pitch, or it will lose its character as a 
speech note, and become a singing drawl, — which is 
neither speech nor song. This faulty effect is often the 
result of attempting to draw the sounds out to too great an 
extent before the organs have become habituated by 



Examples of Median Stress. 189 

gradual practice to extend it equably and firmly in the 
gradual swell. 

The Median is heard in the element of the word all, in 
reverence and adoration; e. g., "Join all ye creatures in 
his praise." 

Examples of Median Stress. 

"The meanest flower that blows, can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 

— Wordsworth. 

"These are Thy glorious works, Parent of Good, 
Almighty! Thine this universal frame 
Thus wondrous fair, — Thyself how wondrous then! 
Unspeakable ! who sitt'st above these heavens, 
To us invisible, or dimly seen 
'Midst these thy lowest works!" 

— " Morning Hymn in Paradise" MlLTON. 

"Thou glorious mirror! where the Almighty's form 
Glasses itself in tempests." 



"And I have lov'd thee, Ocean! and my joy 
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be 
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward ; — from a boy 
I wanton'd with thy breakers, — they to me 
Were a delight." 

— Byron. 

And this is in the night: — Most glorious night! 

Thou wert not sent for slumber ! let me be 
A sharer in thy fierce and far delight, — 

A portion of the tempest and of thee! 

How the lit lake shines, — a phosphoric sea, 
And the big rain comes dancing to the earth ! " 

— Byron. 



190 Murdoch's Elocution. 

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how 
infinite in faculties ! in form and moving, how express and admir- 
able ! In action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a 

god!" 

— "Hamlet," Shakespeare. 

"The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory 
thundereth ; the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the 
Lord is powerful ; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The 
voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the Lord breaketh 
the cedars of Lebanon." 

— The Bible. 

REGRET. 

"My heart laments that virtue cannot live, 
Out of the teeth of emulation." 

— "Julius Gesar" Shakespeare. 



Thorough Stress in Expression. 

143. Thorough stress carries the force and fullness of 
the radical throughout the entire concrete or wave, giving 
it a heavy or blunt effect. Let the sentence, "I care not 
for your threats ! " be uttered in a rudely defiant manner, 
and the emphatic / will illustrate this form of force. 

Thorough stress has no light degrees, being always a 
sign of boldness and energy. On the short tonics, or on 
immutable syllables, this form of stress is scarcely to be 
distinguished from the radical, but on elements or syllables 
of quantity its peculiarly blunt effect is most noticeable. 

This stress requires practice on the tables of mutable 
and indefinite syllables through the intervals and waves. 
Thorough stress is heard in the following language of de- 
fiance on the word all, again employed to express another 
emotion: " Come one, co?ne all!" The same syllable may 
be given five or six times, with different degrees of force 
and interval. 



Exercises in Thorough Stress. 191 



Exercises in Thorough Stress. 

She's cursed,' said the skipper; 'speak her fair: 

I 'm scary always to see her shake 
Her wicked head, with its wild gray hair, 

And nose like a hawk, and eyes like a snake.' " 

— Whittier. 

" ' What on airth is he up to, hey?' 
4 Don'o — ther 's suthin or other to pay, 
Ur he wouldn't a' stayed to hum to-day.' 
Says Burke, 'His toothache's all 'n his eye! 
He never 'd miss a Fo'th-o-July, 
Ef he hedn't got some machine to try.'" 

— J. T. Trowbridge. 

11 We drink the downfall 
Of an accursed land!" 



The night is growing darker, — 

Ere one more day is flown, 
Bregenz, our foeman's stronghold, 

Bregenz shall be our own ! " 

— Adelaide Procter. 



Compound Stress. 

144. Compound stress combines the forcible forms of 
the radical and vanishing stresses on one syllabic concrete 
or wave. Requiring, therefore, both time and space for 
its execution, it is employed only on indefinite syllables, 
through the wider intervals and waves, powerfully marking 
their extremes. It is the most intensified form of distinc- 
tion that can be applied to the concrete, and marks the 
most powerful forms of emphasis; it can only be produced 
by the speaker placing himself in sympathy with the 



192 Murdoch's Elocution. 

emotion of which it is the exponent; it is generally accom- 
panied by aspiration. Intense surprise, contempt, and 
withering scorn naturally demand this stress. 

Practice upon table of indefinite syllables in the concrete 
intervals and waves. Expression again employs the sylla- 
ble all to apply this stress to the emphatic words of the 
astonished interrogative: "What all, did they all fail?" 
Repeat the element, and then the word all, five or six 
times, with steadily increasing force, and the student's ear 
can not fail to tutor him in the future application of the 
stress. 

Compound stress is exemplified in the violent and ex- 
cited interrogation of Brutus to Cassius : 

"Must /give way to your rash cholor? 
Must /be frightened when a madman stares?" 

Again, in Cassius' words: " I an itching palm?" 
"Chastisement!" It is heard in withering scorn, as in 
Lady Constance's speech to Austria: 

"Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame, 
And hang a calf's skin on those recreant limbs." 



The Loud Concrete. 

145. The loud concrete is simply the ordinary radical 
and vanish magnified throughout by force. It is the nat- 
ural element of expression in all stirring, rousing, ener- 
gized utterance. Exultation, confidence, courage, and 
exhortation, unaccompanied by anger, receive from this 
form of stress, on the rising and falling wider intervals and 
waves, a lively, piercing energy that gives great brilliancy 
to each. It is a question whether it may not be called the 
full radical stress that is not, in the slightest degree, tinct- 
ured with any malignant passion or emotion. 



Exercises in Loud Concrete. 193 



Exercises in Loud Concrete. 

"Just our rapture to enhance, 

Let the English rake the bay, 
Gnash their teeth and glare askance 
As they cannonade away ! 
'Neath rampired Solidor pleasant riding on the Ranee." 

— " Hen>e Riel, n BROWNING. 

"The sanguine sunrise, with his meteor eyes, 
And his burning plumes outspread, 
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack, 
When the morning star shines dead ; 
As, on the jag of a mountain crag, 
Which an earthquake rocks and swings, 
An eagle, alit, one moment may sit 
In the light of its golden wings." 

— " The Cloud," Shelley. 

"Flag of the free heart's hope and home! 
By angel hands to valor given ; 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven." 

— " American Flag" DRAKE. 

"The waves were white, and red the morn, 
In the noisy hour when I was born ; 
And the whale it whistled, the porpoise rolled, 
And the dolphins bared their backs of gold ; 
And never was heard such an outcry wild 
As welcomed to life the ocean child ! " 

— " The Sea," Barry Cornwall. 

Tremor or Intermittent Stress. 

146. A skillful execution of the concrete or syllabic 
movement, as affected by the tremor, should be the 
student's next acquisition in vocal training. 

M. E— 17. 



194 Murdochs Elocution. 

Let the words, " O my soul's joy!" be uttered with joy- 
ous exultation, and the voice will have the effect of tremb- 
ling on the elements o and oi. This effect is what has 
been described as the tremor of speech. (See If 27.) It 
is in reality a form of intonation, but it is also sometimes 
termed the intermittent stress, owing to the fact that the 
abrupt function of the voice is the principle underlying the 
tremulous intonation ; that is to say, the tremor is effected 
by the same organic act as that producing the radical 
stress, repeated in rapid succession. These brief impulses 
are in reality minute and rapid concretes, and are called 
tittles, and the minute discrete interval between them a 
tittlelar skip. Owing to the rapidity of the vocal transit 
through the tittles, and their close succession in the tremor, 
the latter is scarcely appreciable to the ear as a matter of 
measurable interval, either in the concrete form or discrete 
succession of its tittles. 

The creation of the successive abrupt impulses should be 
the chief object of the present exercise, to obtain an 
artistic execution of this function. This may be done by 
first imitating the natural function of laughter and crying, 
on any of the tonic elements, or merely the expression of 
mirthfulness or deep grief, in which the voice is said to 
shake or tremble. The tittlelar impulses may be produced 
on a level line of pitch, or they may be carried in rapid 
succession through all the intervals of the scale, rising and 
falling, and in connection with the several stresses. It will 
require much practice to obtain this result. The objects to 
be considered are: 

(1) To make the separate tittles as distinct as possible. 

(2) To make them follow each other with ease and rapidity. 

(3) To accent each well. 

(4) To make them as numerous as possible during the 
proper pronunciation of the element as syllables, on which 
they are placed. 



Tremor or Intermittent Stress. 195 



Alter practicing them on the elements, they should be 
given on the words of the table of indefinite syllables, tak- 
ing care that each element sustains a due portion of the 
tremulous movement. The tremor serves to intensify all 
the other vocal elements with which it is combined. 

In practicing the tremor in laughing exercises, the voice 
passes through a tone in its tittlelar movement, while in the 
weeping utterance the minute tittles are semitonic. The 
tremulous movement is the natural expression of old age 
that is attended with physical weakness and exhaustion, 
sickness, fatigue, grief, joy, and love. 

The semitonic tremor is heard in the following, where 
we apply this movement to the word all, although the 
other words, or accented syllables, of the entire quotation, 
would be given with the tremor and semitone: 

"Oh! I have lost you all! 
Parents, and home, and friends." 

In the application of all the forms of stress to the word 
all, the student is to recognize the coloring of expression 
given to words by this most expressive agency. 



Examples of Semitonic Tremor. 

"O, I could weep 
My spirit from mine eyes ! " 

— "Julius Casar," Shakespeare. 

When my father comes hame frae the pleugh,' she said, 
Oh! please then waken me.'" 

— " Relief of Lucknaw" Robt. Lowell. 

"O come in life, 01 come in death! 
O lost! my love, Elizabeth!" 

— ' * High 1 iJc, " Jean Ingelow. 



196 Murdoch's Elocution. 

"'Angel,' said he sadly, 'I am old; 

Earthly hope no longer hath a morrow ; 
Yet, why I sit here thou shalt be told.' 
Then his eye betrayed a pearl of sorrow ; 

Down it rolled ! 
'Angel,' said he sadly, 'I am old." 

—"Old," Ralph Hoyt. 



subdued grief. — Expulsive Orotund. Semitonic Tremor. 
Subdued Force. 



"How far, how very far it seemed, 
To where that starry taper gleamed, 
Placed by her grandchild on the sill 
Of the cottage window on the hill ! 
Many a parent heart before, 
Laden till it could bear no more, 
Has seen a heavenward light that smiled, 
And knew it placed there by a child ; — 
A long-gone child, whose anxious face 
Gazed toward them down the deeps of space, 
Longing for the loved to come 
To the quiet of that home." 

"Brushwood," Read. 



The expression of love in its more passionate forms be- 
comes slightly semitonic and tremulous, thus : 



I said to the rose, ' The brief night goes 

In babble, and revel, and wine, — 
O young lord-lover, what sighs are those, 

For one that will never be thine ! 
But mine, but mine,' so I sware to the rose, 

'For ever and ever mine!'" 

"Maud," Tennyson. 



Examples of the Tremor. 197 



" Sweet, good night ! 
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, 
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet : 
Good night! good night! — as sweet repose and rest 
Come to thy heart, as that within my breast!" 

— ' ' Romeo and Juliet, " SHAKESPEARE 



Examples of the Tremor, 
joy. — Hysterical Tremor. Orotund Quality. High Pitch. 

"'Clod bless the bonny Hielanders; 

We're saved! we're saved!' she cried." 

" Relief of Lucknow" Robt. Lowell. 

"Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round: 
(Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;) 
And he amidst his frolic play, — 
As if he would the charming air repay, — 
Shook thousand odors from his dewy wings." 

— "Ode to the Passions," Collins. 

"Come rest on my bosom, if there ye can sleep; 
I canna speak to ye: I only can weep." 

"You've crossed the wild river, you've risked all for me, 
And I '11 part frae ye never, dear Charlie Machree ! " 

— " Charlie Machree" Wlf. J. Hoppin. 



Chapter XVI. 

Ge7ieral Outline in Theory of the Natural Relationships between 
the Mind and the Voice. 

147. The different states of the mind are variously desig- 
nated as ideas, perceptions, thoughts, sentiments, emotions, 
feelings, and passions. All of these mental conditions 
designated by the terms just enumerated may be referred 
to the three generic divisions : thought, a plain and quiet 
state of mind; passion, a state of strong excitement; and 
sentiment, or interthought, an earnest state between these 
extremes. 

The state of simple thought, or, as it will be called, the 
thoughtive state of mind, is a "simple perception of things, 
their action or other relationship, with no reference to the 
exciting interests of human life." Language indicative of 
this passionless or quiet state, is commonly designated as 
narrative, declarative, descriptive, unimpassioned, plain 
matter of fact, all of which will be comprehended in the 
present treatment under the terms thoughtive or plain nar- 
rative language. 

148. The second, or intermediate generic mental condi- 
tion, "has that relation to human life which excites mod- 
erately self-interesting reflections in the mind," and em- 
braces dignity, pathos, awe, serious admiration, reverence, 
and other states congenial in character and degree with 
these. This condition of the mind, with its corresponding 
vocal expression, is called the interthoughtive, admirative, 
or reverentive. The terms in common use, signifying 

(198) 



Relation betwee?i Mind and Voice. 199 



states of mind synonymous with these, are the dignified, 
the gravely pathetic, the respectful, the supplicative, and 

the penitential. 

149. The third condition "has a more immediate and 
vivid reference or relation to human life, its reflective 
interests and actions throughout the impressive forms, de- 
grees, and varieties of passion." This state of mind, and 
the language which denotes it, are called the passionative. 

For terms in common use, synonymous with or repre- 
senting varieties of the passionative division, we have the 
impassioned, expressive, the earnestly interrogative, ex- 
clamatory, derisive, contemptuous, and others indicating 
excitement or vehemence, together with the numerous 
terms for the passions, see Aaron Hill, in the author's 
" Pica for Spoken Language" Corresponding to the dis- 
tinction between these states of the mind, are the vocal 
means for declaring them ; or, as we shall employ the 
term, their vocal signs. 

150. Although each one of the five properties of the 
voice, known as quality, force, time, pitch, and abruptness, 
has been described and considered separately, through the 
necessities of an analytic elementary study, they are neces- 
sarily co-existent with each other in some form, variety, or 
degree of each, in every individual utterance of the voice. 
Thus, in their sum of effects, as variously combined, they 
produce what is called the vocal sign of the state of mind 
denoted by that utterance. 

The vocal signs of simple thought, or the thoughtive 
signs, are, in pitch, the interval of a second, and the 
shorter wave of this interval; in force, a moderate degree; 
in quality, the natural; in time quantities, neither very 
short nor much extended; in abruptness, the light degree 
requisite for clear articulation. 

All of the other intervals of pitch and waves, in con- 
trast with the plain character of the second, are more 



200 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

striking, the octave being the most so. All degrees of 
force greater or less than the moderate become more im- 
pressive; all qualities except the natural are more ex- 
pressive; while very short or very long quantities are more 
impressive than the moderate. 

The more vivid constituents of the voice color language 
with sentiment, passion, or expression; the more striking 
they are, the higher the coloring or the more strongly ex- 
pressive of an excited mental condition. 

Expression in elocution is, then, the coloring of language 
by the various vocal signs of sentiment or passion. As an 
illustration : let the word no, as a reply to a question, be 
given as a downward concrete second, in natural quality, 
short quantity, and moderate force, and it will indicate an 
unexcited mental condition. Repeat the question in such 
a manner as to create in the mind of the person addressed 
a feeling of indignant rebuke, and the no of his reply will 
be given with a wider downward interval, fuller quality, 
increased force, and more deliberate quantity, denoting a 
variety of the interthoughtive state of mind. 

151. Each state of mind may be continued, and with its 
vocal sign or signs extended into the current of discourse; 
thus will be formed a current vocal style or manner, either 
thoughtive, interthoughtive or passionative. 

Drift is the term employed to designate this continuation 
of any one state and its corresponding sign or signs, 
through the current of discourse. Thus, there may be a 
thoughtive drift, and an expressive drift, either of senti- 
ment or passion. 

It is a difficult matter to draw a strict line of separation 
between the mental states of thought and passion, and 
between the signs which generally represent them. These 
must, from the peculiar constitution of the human mind, 
and its ever-varying conditions, from perfect tranquillity to 
every degree of excitement, closely approach each other, 



Relation between Mind and Voice. 201 

and constantly intermingle. But, though the mental and 
vocal distinctions between each arc so slight, at what may 
be called their points of convergence, as to be scarcely 
distinguishable; at their wider points of divergence, the 
difference is marked and unmistakable. 

It must not be supposed that the several drifts of 
thought, interthought, and passion, with their respective 
signs, are used separately, and kept distinct from each 
other in such a way that the ear might become familiar 
with the peculiar vocal character of each. 

Were this the case, the vocal characteristics of the 
several drifts would be so distinctly marked as to render 
the task of analysis a matter of comparative ease. On the 
contrary, "the course of a drift is seldom strictly continu- 
ous with itself, its continuity being occasionally and vari- 
ously interrupted by other drifts, or by other individual 
states of mind with their vocal signs." 

In the latter case, however, the general style or drift of 
any portion of discourse will take its vocal character or 
coloring, so to speak, from the character of the constitu- 
ents of either of the three divisions which predominate, 
either as to frequency of recurrence or impressiveness of 
effect. 

We may have a thoughtive, interthoughtive, or passion- 
ative drift extending through a clause, a member, or a 
whole sentence ; but seldom is a half page, and never a 
chapter to be found exclusively in one style. 

152. The thoughtive drift or current of language is the 
most frequent form, variously interrupted by individual 
signs of the other two states, for occasional purposes of 
impressive emphasis, or by drifts of those signs. 

Many of the expressive vocal elements may be so fre- 
quently employed as to produce a current style or drift of 
utterance, but a few are of so striking or vivid a character, 
and mark such exceptional and intensified states of the 



202 Murdoch's Elocution. 

mind that they are seldom of more than occasional occur- 
rence, or if continued, never longer than to form what 
may be called a partial drift, a continuance simply to the 
extent of a brief phrase or clause. 

153. The vocal signs in language are accompanied by 
words or verbal signs of the thought, sentiment, or passion 
to be uttered, excepting in the inarticulate utterances of 
extreme emotion or passion expressed in screams, groans, 
sighs, etc.* 

The same verbal signs may, however, indicate a variety 
of mental conditions, according to the vocal signs by 
which they are accompanied. Of this we have had an 
example in the case of the word no. 

In the study of written language for the purposes of art 
in elocution, it is of course from the verbal forms and the 
varied relationships and connections of ideas they repre- 
sent, that the states of the mind indicated by such lan- 
guage are to be determined, and thence the vocal sign or 
signs appropriate to accompany its verbal constituents, in- 
dividual or consecutive, through its currents and inter- 
currents of thought and passion. This implies, therefore, 
as a primary requisite on the part of the student, a 
thorough analysis of the language to be read, comprehend- 
ing not only a minute examination of sentences as com- 
posed of their constituent clauses, phrases, and words in 
order to develop their relations in sense, but also a close 
study of the context, to discover the sentiment or passion 
contained in the language, and their modifications. 

154. In all language, some words will be distinguished 
above or from others with which they are associated, by 
virtue of the peculiar or relative importance they bear to 
the thought or passion to be denoted. This distinction 



* See author's " Plea for Spoken Language. 



Relation between Mind and Voice. 203 

constitutes emphasis, and it is always effected by some 
form, degree or variety of pitch, force, time, etc.; in other 
words, by some particular vocal sign of thought, senti- 
ment or passion. 

The analysis here employed, which distinguishes the 
momentary state of mind and its individual sign, is the 
only basis for acquiring an accurate knowledge of the 
vocal means producing different emphasis. When the 
student has mastered all of the constituents of thought and 
expression through the detailed study and practice of each 
in its order, skillful and artistic reading will be attained 
by allowing the discriminating and practical knowledge 
thus acquired to regulate and direct the natural impulses 
to feel the subject and then express it. 

I here introduce Rush's analysis of the "Hamlet" 
speech : 

" I will illustrate this subject of mental and vocal drift by a 
familiar example. Let the reader give an important direction to a 
servant. He will perceive in himself, an earnest and moderately 
imperative state of mind, the drift or current of which is not to 
be broken, except by explanation, or by a passing reflection. The 
vocal drift of this Direction is diatonic, with the downward third 
or fifth, on the accented syllables, according to the earnestness of 
the case. Under this vocal sign the direction will accord with 
the state of mind. We will apply this principle of the according 
mental and vocal drift, to the scene of Hamlet with the Player. 

"Hamlet's part has three purposes: Direction; and as Shakes- 
peare could not or never would write without them, Comment and 
Reflection. The first is here distinguished by italics; the Comment 
by curved, and the Reflection by angular brackets. The purpose 
of the inclusive interlinear braces will be stated presently. 

" Hamlet. — Speak the speech^ I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, 
trippingty on the tongue: (but if you mouth it, as many of our 
players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines.) Nor do 
not saw the air too much with your hand, thus ; but use all gently : 
for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say, whirlwind of your 
passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it 



204 Murdoch 's Elocution. 



smoothness. [O, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious 



I 1 

periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split 

the ears of the groundlings; who for the most part, are capable of 

nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise ; I would have such 



a fellow whipped, for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod:] 
Pray you avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion 
be your tutor : suit the action to the word, the word to the action ; with 
this special obsei"vance, that you overstep 7tot the modesty of Nature; (for 
any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, 

both at the first, and now, was and is, to hold as it were, the 
mirror up to Nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own 



image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pres- 
sure.) Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the un- 
skillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve ; the censure of 
lohich one, must in your allowance, derweigh a whole theat?'e of others. 
[O, there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise, 
and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having the 
accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, 
have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of Nature's 
journeymen had made them, and not made them well, they imi- 
tated humanity so abominably.] 

Player. — I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us. 

Hamlet. — O, reform it altogether, and let those that play your 
cloxvns, speak no more than is set down for them : (for there be of 



them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren 
spectators to laugh too; though in the meantime, some necessary 
question of the play be then to be considered; that's villainous; 
and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.) Go 
make you ready. 

"The mental and the vocal Drift for the Directive part of this 
Advice, was described under the preceding example of a strict 
order to a servant. The Comment being something explanatory, or 
illustrative, or questionable, and employing a different state of 
mind, is to be uttered with a less positive intonation. The Re- 
flective portion, embracing the mental condition of disapprobation, 
or derision, or contempt, should receive the more forcible expression 
of earnestness, and sneer. And both the Comment and Reflection 



Relation between Mind and Voice. 205 

are t<> be given with a variety of upward and downward intervals, 
and waves, as the knowledge and the taste of the speaker, grounded 
on the philosophy of the voice, may direct. 

"To illustrate some of our principles of stress and intonation, 
1 have merely marked with the common accentual symbol what 
appear to be emphatic words; but have not time to assign causes for 
the choice. At six places, I have included under interlinear braces 
certain words, to be carried beyond their appointed and still pre- 
served pauses, on the phrase of the monotone. The purpose of 
this monotone is to unite upon the ear, the act with its cause or 
purpose; as in the first case, the tearing to rags, is to split the ears 
of the groundlings; in the second, the cause of the whippings is 
the (Perching of Termagant ; in the third, fourth, and fifth, the pur- 
pose of playing, is severally to hold the mirror up to nature ; to show 
virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the body of l/ie 
time, his form and pressure. In the sixth, the idle laugh is, to set on 
idle spectators to laugh too. In this reading, it is the monotone 
bridging as it were the pauses, with its level reach of voice, that 
assists materially in connecting the cause and purpose with their 
object. There is an example of the emphatic tie on the words 
players, play, praise, that, and have, with a moderate flight, and 
abatement on intermediate clauses. The design of this grouping is 
to connect, by vocal means, five words separated in the construc- 
tion ; thereby to bring to the foreground of perception the player, 
his habit of bombastic action, and his unmerited praise. If in this 
instance, who were substituted for that, the chain of the emphatic 
tie would be stronger and brighter, from the greater stress practi- 
cable on its tonic element and indefinite quantity. The tie is also 
to be applied to judicious, and which one; to overstep, and so; to end 
and hold and mirror. I would set a feeble cadence on groundlings ; 
and a rising third on the laugh, that follows unskillful; a falling 
third on grieve; and a falling fifth on well, after made them. 

"On the subject of mental drift, I would ask the reader if he 
does not know when he is angry, or pleased, or sorrowful, aston- 
ished, or inquisitive? For these are current states of mental drift, 
which, if bad example has not confused or destroyed the original 
connection between the mind and the voice, will enable him to 
speak properly, under a general rule of Educated Nature, that 
Shakespeare here alludes to, but did not turn aside to explain." 



Chapter XVII. 
The Diatonic Melody of Speech. 

155. Although it is in the nature of narrative or 
thoughtive utterance that the concrete and discrete syllabic 
progression of the voice, through pitch, shall both be con- 
fined to the inexpressive interval of the tone or second, 
still this simplest form of utterance is not necessarily mo- 
notonous or tiresome in its effect. It may, on the con- 
trary, be constantly varied by changes in the radical pitch 
of the consecutive syllables. This variation constitutes 
Melody. 

The proper diatonic melody of speech may, then, be 
defined as a succession of concrete impulses on the inter- 
val of a second, so varied in radical pitch as to produce 
an agreeable impression upon the ear. 

To realize that such variation exists in the natural 
voice, and is not an invented or mechanical form of utter- 
ance, make the following simple experiment : slowly repeat 
the sentence, A boy caught a large fish in a small stream, 
with a rising concrete second on each syllable, and with 
the radical of each concrete on the same degree of the 
scale. 

The sentence thus read will produce that disagreeable 
and unnatural monotony of effect so often heard in young 
readers. Repeat the same sentence in a natural and collo- 
quial manner, and the ear will readily perceive that there 
are changes in the radical successions, produced by that 
instinctive necessity of the voice for some variation in its 
consecutive utterances. 
(206) 



Diatonic Melody. 207 

The following sentence furnishes an example of the 
progression through pitch of the syllables of the natural 
Diatonic Melody : 

He reads in na - tare's in - ti - nite 



T * ^ « £ =g 



l)ook 


of 


se 


c re - 


cy. 


^ * tf 


* tf - 










•^ 



156. The successions of syllabic concretes forming the 
melody of a sentence constitute in their sum the current 
melody and the melody of the cadence. 

The current melody embraces the varied successions of 
all the concretes of a sentence, except those of the last 
two or three syllables. The melodic successions of the 
latter constitute the melody of the cadence or close. This 
part of a melody marks the periods of discourse, and for 
the purpose of denoting conclusion more or less complete, 
at its different parts, requires a certain order in the succes- 
sion of its constituents. 

The syllables of the current melody have, however, no 
fixed order of succession as to radical pitch. Following 
the conditions of the diatonic melody with regard to extent 
of interval employed, concrete and discrete, the same 
words may be given with a variety of succession in the 
radicals of their syllables, and still preserve the natural 
character of the simple melody of plain narrative or 
thoughtive utterance. 

That the syllabic successions may be agreeable to the 
ear, however, there must not be a too frequent repetition 
of the same radical pitch, or its alternate rise and fall, or, 
in fact, of any continued course of too noticeable a regu- 



208 



Murdoch's Elocution. 



larity. The following examples will illustrate how the 
syllabic successions of the current melody may be varied 
in radical pitch and still retain the vocal character of plain 
narrative language. 



He 


nev - 


er 


drinks, 


but 


Ti - 


mon's 


sil - 


ver 


-#^ 


¥ 


-T 


tf 


¥ 




4 


¥ 


¥~ 


W 


W 















treads 


up 


- on 


his 


lip. 


& ^~ *f~~ 


4 if - 










^- 



He nev - er drinks, but Ti - mon's sil - ver 



« r « r * *~ « r * 



treads 


up - 


on 


his 


lip. 


Hf 


-«*- 


«r 










«• 


A 










n. 



He 


nev - 


er 


drinks, 


but 


Ti - 


mon's 


sil - 


ver 


of 


• 


•r 




• 


¥ 


^r 


• 







treads 


up - 


on 


his 


lip. 


1^ 


¥ 


* 






w ^ 



The melodies, thus varied in the course of this short 
sentence, are all of them equally appropriate, and equally 
well adapted to the utterance of the thought. Still other 
varieties of discrete intonation could be given to accom- 
pany the words by which the melody of the same sentence 
might be still farther varied, but these are sufficient for the 
purposes of illustration. But, however varied the succes- 



Diatonic Melody. 



209 



sive syllabic concretes may be as to radical pitch, their 
melodic successions are all comprehended within a limited 
number of definite groups, known as the phrases of melody. 



That quar-ter most the skill- ful Greeks an - noy, 




Monotone. Falling Ditone. Rising Tritone. Rising Ditone. 

Where yon wild fig - trees join the walls of Troy. 



* *~ -* \ + * * ^V 



Falling Tritone. 



Alternation. 



Triad of the Cadence. 



157. A succession of two or more syllables, having the 
same radical pitch, constitute the phrase of the monotone. 
The monotone may be illustrated by uttering the elements 
a, e, t\ 0, the radical of each beginning on the same line 
of pitch. 

The rising ditone includes two successive syllables, the 
radical of the second sound rising a single tone or second 
above the first. An example of this melodic movement of 
the voice may be afforded on the two syllables of the word 
evening, in the plain statement, without emphasis, contained 
in the following sentence: " In the evening, the sun sets." 

A falling ditone consists also of two syllabic concretes, 
of which the second falls in radical pitch a degree or tone 
below the first. An illustration of this melodic effect, just 
the reverse of the preceding, may be found on the word 
morning, of the subjoined sentence: " The evening and the 
morning were the first day" 

The rising tritone consists of a succession of three sylla- 
bic concretes, in which the second rises in radical pitch a 
tone above the first, and the third a tone above the second. 
This movement of the voice will be exemplified in the 

M. E.— 18. 



210 Murdoctis Elocution. 

words in our sleep, in the simple utterance of the following 
sentence: " We know that, in our sleep, we dream." 

The falling tritone is a melodic succession of three sylla- 
bic concretes exactly the reverse of the preceding, the rad- 
ical pitch of the second falling a tone below that of the 
first, and that of the third a tone below the second. A 
change in the above sentence would give the falling tritone 
on the words that we d?'ea??i : " We know that we dream 
in our sleep." 

The alternate phrase of melody is formed by a succes- 
sion of four or more syllables, of which the concretes rise 
and fall alternately in their radical pitch. It is in reality 
but a consecutive representation of the rising or falling 
ditone, but as it often occurs in melody, it is classed as a 
separate phrase. The first line of the following couplet 
may illustrate a long phrase of alternation : 

"So loud and clear it seemed the ear 
Of dusty death must wake and hear." 

The rest of the sentence could be given with the same 
movement, but if continued too long it would violate our 
law of variety in melody. 

The triad of the cadence consists of three syllables de- 
scending by proximate degrees ; the radical pitch of each 
one falls one tone below the preceding, the last constituent, 
being a downward concrete, produces the effect of a close; 
it is this last movement that marks the difference between 
this form of cadence and the falling tritone, whose rising 
concretes express continuity. 

The phrases of the diatonic melody are carried upward 
and downward relatively to a given pitch, consequently 
they should be practiced in the five ranges of pitch: mid- 
dle, high, highest, low, lowest. We have the following 
notation to illustrate the course of a long sentence through 
nine of these degrees : 



Diatonic Melody 



21 I 



[1 


thou 


dost 


slan - 


der 


her 


and 


tor - 


lure 


me, 




















tf~ 








rf 








*- 


¥ 


V 


* 


tf 


«r 


W 


i/ 













Ne 


ver 


pray 


more 


a - 


ban - 


don 


all 


re - 


morse ; 




















V 


^ 










mf 


* 









On hor - ror's head hor - rors ac - cu - mu - late: 



v * * * * « r * 



Do deeds to make Hea 


- ven weep, all 


earth a - 


mazed : 


^~ ^~ 


^ * *r 


• «r 


% 


+ mT mT * * ^ 


w ^ 





For no - thing canst thou to dam - na - tion add, 




Great -er than that. 



2 1 2 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

158. It should be distinctly understood that the notation 
of the passage here given is only to illustrate the manner 
in which the voice, in plain narrative utterance, may 
traverse the scale, and not as an example of expressive 
elocution. This is true of all the notations; they do not 
represent the way in which the language must be given, 
but a way in which it may be given. 

Were the present language notated to denote expressive 
character, other forms of both the radical and concrete 
pitch would be necessary in the notation. The preceding 
examples illustrate how the plain melody of the second 
may be still farther varied to gratify the ear without em- 
ploying any wider intervals than the tone. 

The beauty of melody, therefore, not only consists in 
skillfully varying the order of the phrases as they move 
onward, but also in correctly managing their rise and fall 
through the whole compass of the voice. A melody that 
would be made to pass through any succession of phrases 
directly ascending one above the other, and then falling in 
the same formal manner, would give no grace to language, 
and a series of such melodies would constitute the most 
disagreeable form of oratorical monotony. But if the di- 
tones of the melody are varied in their progress, and inter- 
spersed with rising and falling tritones, with occasional 
monotones of several constituents, they may be carried 
through the entire compass, and, in return, through any 
varied course of rise and fall, with a most agreeable result. 

An ascent or descent through more than three radicals 
should always be avoided. The melody so constructed is 
an aggregate of the simplest functions of the radical and 
vanish, or vocal concrete, in the consecutive utterances of 
the syllables of language. 

159. Both the concrete and discrete scales enter into the 
melody of speech, the radical and vanish of each syllable 
representing a strictly concrete progression of voice, and 



Diatonic Melody. 213 



the passing of the voice from one syllable to the next, a 
strictly discrete progression. 

In the different order of succession in the constituent 
concretes of the diatonic melody, the interval lying be- 
tween the close of one syllable and the beginning of the 
next is not always the same. The concretes of the rising 
ditone and tritone have apparently no discrete interval be- 
tween them, but the fullness of the radical, as compared 
with the feebleness of the preceding vanish, distinctly 
marks the difference between the two or three successive 
impulses. 

In the monotone, from the termination of one vanish to 
the radical succeeding there is a discrete second; while 
between the constituents of the falling ditone and tritone 
having ascending concretes, there is the interval of two 
tones, or a third. These differences have, however, but 
little perceptible effect upon the simple melody, since it is 
the fullness of the radical which constitutes the melodic 
effect, and marks the progression of sounds upon the ear. 

160. The closing syllables of a sentence constitute the 
Melody of the Cadence. The cadence occurs at the 
periods of discourse, and produces a satisfactory, reposeful 
effect to the ear similar to the conclusion of a tune in song. 
This conclusion, which is the desired effect of the cadence, 
is limited to certain forms, and is produced by the down- 
ward movements of the voice, consequently descent is the 
essential of the cadent phrase. The descent may be ac- 
complished in several ways, but in order to produce the 
true cadencial effect it must be made through the space of 
three tones on the scale, with at least one (and always the 
last) syllabic concrete downward. The triad of the ca- 
dence fulfills these essential conditions of the cadent 
melody. 

It will be found that these same conditions are variously 
met in each of the other forms, of which there are five 



214 Murdoch's Elocution. 

beside the triad, making six in all. The first is the one 
just referred to, and is called the Rising Triad, from the 
concretes of its first two syllabic constituents being upward. 

Triad of the Cadence. 
Sweet is the breath of morn. 



The second form differs from the first only in all of its 
syllables being executed in falling concretes. This is called 
the full cadence, from the completeness of the conclusion 
formed by the combined radical and concrete descent. 

Full Cadence, or Falling Triad. 
The air was fanned by un - num - ber'd plumes. 



The third form is executed on but two syllables, the first 
of which is assigned to a descending concrete interval, 
equal in extent of concrete pitch to the sum of the first 
and second constituents of the full cadence. This is 
called the First Duad form, and is illustrated in the follow- 
ing sentence : 

First Duad. 

With tur - ret crest and sleek en - am - el'd neck. 

« r ^ * ^fzg 



The fourth form is also confined to two syllables, and 
differs from the first Duad, in the syllable taking one fall- 



Diatonic Melody. 2 1 5 



ing concrete, of the extent of the last two constituents of 
the falling Triad. This is called the Second Duad. 

Second Duad. 
The mean - ing not the name I call. 



The fifth form of the cadence is that in which the de- 
scent of the voice through the space of three tones is made 
on one long syllabic concrete. This is called the Monad 
form, — and sometimes, on account of its being the least 
conclusive in its effect, the feeble cadence. 

The Feeble Cadence. 



No, 


by 


the 


rood 


not 


so. 




tf 


mf 


-^ 


• 


* 


^ w w V 



There is still another, or sixth variety, of the cadence. 
It marks the close of a subject more completely than any 
of the preceding, and is effected by the radical descent of 
a third, on some syllable of the current melody preceding 
any of the forms of the cadence (except the monad or 
feeble form), and given near enough to the close to be con- 
nected with it by the ear. This is called, from its pecu- 
liarity of structure, the Prepared Cadence. 

The falling skip of the third seems to give notice, as it 
were, that the voice is about to fall into some of the 
cadent phrases. Other cadences denote in different de- 
grees the conclusion of a particular thought. This cadence 
denotes that the subject itself of a paragraph, chapter, 
volume, or entire discourse is finished. 



216 Murdoch's Elocution. 

The Prepared Cadence. 
Through E - den took their sol - i - ta - ry way. 



^J'^'r*^*.^ 



161. The several forms of the cadence here given repre- 
sent various degrees of conclusiveness and repose. It is 
the fullness of the radical which impresses the ear most 
forcibly, and calls attention to the order of syllabic succes- 
sion. Thus, in the triad it is the three radicals which so 
conspicuously mark the descent of the voice, and consti- 
tutes it the most positive form of the cadence or close, par- 
ticularly when the concrete pitch of its constituents is also 
downward. 

In the duad forms, the number of radicals being les- 
sened, the impressiveness of the cadencial character is pro- 
portionately so; while the monad form, where there is but 
one radical, and the descent in pitch is entirely concrete, 
is the least impressive or conclusive of all. 

A third is the nominal interval for this cadence, as it is 
the smallest downward concrete that has in its place the 
effect of a close. Its effect is such as to allow of either a 
pause after it or a continuation of the discourse. In nam- 
ing the character of this cadence as feeble compared with 
the other forms, allusion is made to its employment in the 
diatonic melody in which it is executed on a simple equable 
concrete. In expressive melody, it will be found that it 
passes into the wider intervals of the fifth and octave, 
when combined with the forms of force, and assumes a 
character as strongly conclusive as any of the other forms 
of the close. 

We shall also find in expressive melody, that the constit- 
uent concretes of the other cadences may pass into the 



Diatonic Melody. 2 1 7 

wider intervals, though preserving relatively similar propor- 
tions to those here described, the principle underlying both 
the thoughtive and expressive cadences being the same. 

The diatonic melody of speech proceeds always by whole 
tones; it can not, therefore, have what in music is termed 
key, and hence there is no fixed point or key-note upon 
the scale to which any melody must return in order to sat- 
isfactorily conclude. This being so, the cadence may be 
effected by a descent from any degree of the speaking 
compass (except, of course, the two lowest notes), through 
all of its various forms. 

Inexperienced readers often produce what has been 
termed the false cadence by allowing the voice to drop a 
discrete third to the last place of the concrete. This 
should be avoided. Omitting the second constituent pro- 
duces what is called a False Cadence. 

False Cadence. 
Of wiles more in - ex - pert I boast not. 



*^~^ * * 



162. The seven diatonic phrases, in their many possible 
forms cf combination and variety of progression through 
the compass of speech, are sufficient, when judiciously em- 
ployed, to prevent the common fault of monotony, arising 
from a repetition of the same phrases at regular intervals, 
producing what is termed a recurring melody. It is by no 
means to be expected that the varied phrases of melody 
can be intermingled in a regular order, or by special 
choice, at the ordinary rate of reading or speaking; but if 
very small sections of sentences are slowly read at a time, 
subject to the correction of the student's own, or of a 
teacher's ear, with a view to the employment of a varied 

M. E.— 19. 



2iS Murdoch's Elocution. 



melody in time, and by perseverance the voice will uncon- 
sciously employ an agreeable variety. A clear perception 
of the effect of the falling ditone should be acquired, and 
a command over its use, so that it may frequently play 
among the syllables of discourse. 

This movement, and the falling tritone, are phrases most 
difficult of execution, as the descending movements in rad- 
ical pitch are like the falling concretes, least employed in 
the ordinary, and frequently faulty, uses of the voice. 

The phrase of alternation produces a light, tripping 
movement that is very expressive in animated description. 
The monotone is equally expressive of dignified and solemn 
language. The movements in the first use of the diatonic 
melody must be stiff and formal until the mere mechanism 
yields to an artistic command of their variety in melody. 

The notations are used only to illustrate possible and 
agreeable combinations of the phrases of melody, and are 
not absolute; i. e., they do not prescribe any one melodic 
form as the only means of correctly uttering the language 
given. Each person must be free within the limitations of 
certain principles to form his own current melody and 
choose the form of his cadence. 

Practical Exercises on the Melodic Successions. 

163. To obtain a clear idea of the radical changes 
through a tone : 

Let any of the notated sentences be taken, and keeping 
in mind the diatonic character of the melody and the sense 
of the words, utter only the tonic element of each with a 
clear, full radical. 

The successive notes of the melody, and their relative 
position on the scale, will thus be clearly marked, for, 
although every element in perfected utterance must be 
heard in the syllabic impulse, yet the tonic being generally 



Diatonic Melody. 



219 



the most remarkable, the characteristic of the syllable lies 
in a large measure with this element. The ear, therefore, 
unembarrassed with the other elements, will much more 
readily note the successive rise and fall in radical pitch, 
particularly when the opening of each constituent of the 
melodic progression is marked by a full, clear radical. 
After the first practice on the single tonic element of 
syllable, the sentence may again be read, giving the 
consonants, still preserving the clear radical of the syllable; 
and finally, when the movement is pretty well establish^ 1 
to the ear on this species of inarticulate utterance, let the 
entire syllable be given. 

Exercises on the Phrases of Melody. 

164. The following diagram is simply suggestive for 
further exercises in numerals, elements, words, and sen- 
tences to cultivate the ear to variety of intonation in read- 
ing. The short sentences given below as exercises in the 
different forms of cadence should be combined with the 
diatonic melody. 



Ale, 

a, 


Arm, All, 
a, a, 

2 3 


Eve, 

4 


Ice, 
1, 

5 


Old, Use 
O, U, 

6 7 


, Ooze, 
00, 

8 


u P> 
u, 

9 


End. 

e. 

10 




of mf 


af 


-4 


wf * 


— w — 


*t " 






w 




There 

Err, 
1, 


where a 

In, On, 

1, 6, 

2, 3, 


few 

Ale, 

4, 


torn 

Eve, 
e, 

5, 


shrubs the 

tee, Old, 
1, O, 

6, 7, 


place 

Use, 
11, 

8, 


dis 

Ooze, 
OO, 
9, 


- close, 
End. 

e. 
10. 


* 


-^ 


mf 


* 


-r * 


*T 


mf 




~ »T 






The 


vil - lage 


preacher's 


mod-est 


man 


-sion 


rose. 






2 20 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Examples for Practice on the different Forms of 
Cadence. 

rising triad. 

"The spirit can not always | sleep in dust." 

FALLING TRIAD. 
"Meantime I'll keep you | company." 

FIRST DUAD. 
" Methought I heard Horatio say to- j morrow." 

SECOND DUAD. 
"And all the people said | Amen." 

MONAD CADENCE. 

"She brought to the Pharisees him that was born | blind." 

" My sentence is for open | war" 

PREPARED CADENCE. 

" Hope for a season bade the world farewell, 
And freedom shrieked as Kosci j usko fell." 

"Let this be done and | Rome is safe." 

"And peaceful slept the mighty | Hector's shade." 

In the following the fall may be placed either on the 
sixth or ninth syllable before the cadence, and perhaps on 
both : 
"And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow." 



Diatonic Melody. 



22 I 



The following is an instance where the descent may be 
on the word immediately preceding the cadence: 

"The fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all | evermore." 

One of the two diagrams introduced here, shows the ad- 
vantages to be derived from tutoring the ear to a recogni- 
tion, and the voice to an execution, of the varied intona- 
tions which produce melody. 

In the first reading of " Cock Robin" we catch the sing- 
song of the nursery, which charms the child by the jing- 
ling recurrence of certain movements in the voice, but 
which is ruinous to the ear, and the teacher frequently 
works months, and sometimes years, to educate out of the 
voice that which the mother has allowed to become a vocal 
habit. In the second, a melody is suggested from the 
natural movements of the voice. Some of the words are 
rendered emphatic, and call for wider intervals to be intro- 
duced into the diatonic melody. The first sentence is a 
pronominal interrogative, taking the partial form, and ends 
as a declarative sentence, with the triad of the cadence. 
See ^|i6o. The diagrams also show the difference between 
the Walker inflective system and Rush's syllabic intonation. 




Who killed Cock Rob - in ? I, said the spar - row, 



*^ * ' ^ K 



With my bow and ar - row, I killed Cock Ro - bin. 



Chapter XVIII. 

Intonation at Pauses : A study of the Phrases of Melody as they 
occur at Pauses, in their Relations to the Continuation or 
Co?npletio?i of Sense. 

165. No language moves through any continued melodic 
succession of modified sentences or paragraphs, or succes- 
sion of paragraphs, without occasional pauses, which, from 
the necessities of sense and respiration, separate certain 
words, or groups of words, from each other. 

All the parts of continued discourse thus separated, hav- 
ing the least unity of purpose, bear some relation to each 
other; and being severally more or less intimate, punctu- 
al ve marks are employed as a means of indicating their 
different degrees of relationship. The design of this 
grammatical punctuation is to aid the eye of the reader in 
resolving a sentence into its syntactical portions. Its ordi- 
nary use in audible punctuation, however, is almost exclu- 
sively to indicate the duration of the several pauses. The 
temporal rest alone is not sufficient in all cases to prevent 
obscurity in the mind of the hearer, or mistake as to the 
meaning of discourse ; but the imited means of pause and 
intonatmi serve to clearly set forth the exact relations of 
the several groups of words or pausal sections of discourse. 
The phrases of melody serve to give an agreeable variety 
to language, and have in their relation to pauses a positive 
significance, which marks continuation or completion of 
the sense. 

166. The inherent character of the rising and falling 
movements of the voice will at once explain the peculiar 

(222) 



hitonation at Pauses. 



power of the different phrases of melody at pauses ex- 
pressed in the following: 

Tli e triad of the cadence denotes a completion of the pre- 
ceding sense, and is, therefore, admissible only at a proper 
grammatical period. But it does not follow that it is 
always to be applied at the close of the preceding sense, 
for in those forms of loose sentences and inverted periods 
which frequently occur in composition, there are members 
with this complete and insulated meaning, which, from 
their position and relation to the other parts of the sen- 
tence following, will not admit of this concluding phrase. 

The rising tritone denotes the most immediate connection 
of the parts of a sentence separated by a pause. 

The rising ditone connects the sense of the parts sepa- 
rated in a diminished degree. 

The monotone denotes a less intimate connection of the 
sense than the rising ditone, while 

The falling ditone, a still more diminished relationship ; 
and 

The falling tritone indicates the least suspension of the 
sense that can exist without entirely cutting off its further 
progression.* 

In the preceding, it is to be understood that the con- 
cretes of the several phrases are all upward. It will 
readily be perceived that a falling concrete or concretes, 
with any of these phrases, would produce in all cases an 



* Rush suggested, as an aid in teaching phrasing, the adoption of 
a punctuation mark called a dicomma. He further suggested some 
fixed movements for pausal intonation; as, "A comma might de- 
note the phrase of the rising tritone ; a double or dicomma, the 
rising ditone or the monotone ; a dash, if used, the monotone ; a 
semicolon, the falling ditone; a colon, the falling tritone; and a 
period, the triad of the cadence." Sheridan also employed a kind 
of double comma. 



224 Murdoch's Elocution. 

effect of separation varying in degree according to the 
radical successions of the phrase. Thus, a rising ditone, 
with a downward concrete on the second syllable, together 
with a short pause, will produce the effect of the comple- 
tion of a part of the sentence, and also of continuation of 
sense. 

This form of intonation is often required in vocally 
punctuating sentences which are so constructed as to de- 
tach the sense from what follows so far that a falling move- 
ment is required, rather than a rising one, and yet not a 
fall of the cadence.* 

The monotone and falling ditone, with a downward con- 
crete on their last syllable, are often used as similar instances 
of a wide separation of sense, but still a dependence of 
parts, requiring a vocal movement indicative of partial 
completion. These movements are sometimes termed the 
poetic monotone, as they produce a beautiful melody in 
poetry, where wider intervals would be too matter-of-fact. 

167. The Partial Cadence avoids the effect of full com- 
pletion of sense, and secures the dependence of parts by 
being made on the last three syllables of the clause to 
which it is applied; the first two syllables form the rising 
ditone, with a downward concrete on the third. 



Let 


your 


com 


pan - 


ions 


be 


se - 


lect. 














<S 


^^ 


^~ 


m g^ 


*f 


-S* 


if 


<S/ 


W 




W 


W 




W 











If the following example from "Paradise Lost" should 
be given with a monotone, with last concrete falling at 



* Such sentences are most frequently found among the earlier 
writers, such as Milton, whose style is founded on the Latin con- 
struction. They are not as much used by writers who have had 
the advantage of a maturer language. 



Intonation at Pauses* 225 

"supreme," and partial cadence at "mild was heard," the 
sense will be clearly conveyed; a cadence (unless it were 
the monad form) would separate it too much from what 
follows : 

"On to the sacred hill 
They lead him high applauded, and present 
Before the seat Supreme; from whence a voice, 
From 'midst a golden cloud thus mild was heard : 
Servant of God, well done." 

— Milton. 



A general direction for the management of the voice at 
pauses, derived from the principles underlying intonation, 
may be given as follows : 

A Full Period requires some form of the cadence. 

A Colon may have a cadence or a falling tritone, or a 
monotone with last concrete downward ; or the partial 
cadence, or falling ditone, with downward concrete. 

A Comma may have a rising tritone or ditone, all having 
rising concretes. 

The choice of phrase to be employed in each case must 
be determined by the sense in the relation of thoughts and 
ideas. 

168. The following notated passage from Milton is an 
example of expressive language really belonging under the 
head of the admirative or reverentive style. It is not the 
object here, however, to illustrate the sentiment of the lan- 
guage, as that would carry us beyond the province of the 
plain, inexpressive melody. The notation is designed to 
exemplify the use of the melodic phrases at pauses, simply 
for the development of the sense, and is to be read in the 
plain diatonic melody. Moreover, the notation of this 
passage is not given as the prescribed and only way in 
which it may be rendered, but to furnish the student with 
instances of the poivcr and place of the phrases of melody 



226 



Murdoch ' s Eloattion. 



as connected with pauses. The principles governing the 
use of notations, explained in the preceding division of 
this chapter, being the same in this and all other instances 
of their employment. 



So spake the 


Se - 


raph 


Ab - 


diel, 


faith 


ful found 


* if •* 


tf 


ft 


if 


tf~ 


* 


* * 


W w w 


W 






W 


w W 



A - mong the 


faith-less: 


Faith 


ful on - 


ly 


he. 


J~ * * 


-*-*T 


*f 


-*^- 


Sk 




W 


W A^ 


^ 



A - mon? in - nu - me - ra - ble false; un - moved, 



* * * * « r 



Un 


- sha 


■ ken, 


un 


- se - 


duced, un - 


ter - 


ri - 


fied; 










«r 


«r w- 


d 


«r 







His 


loy - 


al - 


ty 


he 


kept 


his 


love, his 


zeal. 


-C 


4 


4 






* 


«• 


* * 


a 


















^ 



Nor 


num - ber, nor 


ex 


- am - 


pie, 


with him wrought; 


—^ 


* ^ *~ 




*" 


• 


+ *~ * 






WW 



To 


swerve 


from 


truth 


or 


change his 


con - 


stant 


mind, 


* 


-T 


H/ 


-#" 


-/^ 


^ m* 


-r 


f/ 


W 





Though sin 


gle. 


^ <•" 


1 * ^ 



Intimation at Pauses. 227 

The pause at Abdie] is marked with a falling ditone, he- 
cause the included member does not necessarily produce 
the expectation of additional meaning or qualification, and 
because this phrase does not dissolve the grammatical con- 
cord between the members which it separates. The partial 
cadence is placed on faithless, with a view to indicate 
the considerable separation of the sense at this point. 

The accepted grammatical punctuation of the editor 
places a comma at faithless, and thus makes the three suc- 
ceeding words a very dependant clause, whereas it is very 
little dependant, and should, therefore, be marked with a 
colon. The words "faithful only he," may be regarded as 
an elliptical sentence which requires the cadence. 

The next pause at false is preceded by a rising di- 
tone, because there is but a slight suspension of the voice 
and of the sense. The structure of the member evidently 
creates expectancy, and this species of phrase indicated 
that continuation of the sense involving expectancy. 

Of the four succeeding pauses, the first three are notated 
with the monotone to foretell the continued progression of 
sense. The fourth, at luiterrified, has the falling ditone to 
denote a change and less of suspension, but not a close of 
thought. 

Variety might be shown in ordering these four pauses, 
without affecting the sense, by giving to the last two sylla- 
bles of unshaken or of tuisednecd a rising ditone. 

The rising ditone is placed at kept, for since love and zeal 
are, equally with loyalty, the grammatical objectives of the 
verb kept, although disjoined by the inverted construction 
of the verse, no other phrase at this pause would conduce 
so much to impress upon the ear the true syntax of the 
sentence. 

The editor's punctuation of this passage usually places a 
semicolon at zeal; but the second duad employed here 
will aid in referring love and zeal back as objects of kept, 



228 Murdoch's Elocution. 

and thus prevent their bearing forward as nominatives to 
some expected verb, a vocal effect which might not be pro- 
duced by employing at this place some of the continuative 
phrases of melody appropriate to the semicolon. 

The remaining part of this passage, as well as the other 
notated passages following, contain examples of the princi- 
ples just elucidated, and need no explanation. 



On 


Lin 


- den, 


when 


the 


sun 


was 


low, 


^ 


tf~ 


* 


rf~ 


tf 


«f 


¥ 


* 


W 


W 




W' 


w 




All 


blood- 


less 


lay the 


un 


- trod 


- den 


snow ; 


*f 


o/ 


J 


-r -r 


-r 


df 


* 




w * - ^ 


And 


dark 


as 


win - 


ter 


was 


the 


flow 




/ 


— ^ 


•r 


-*^- 


-¥— 


-^- 


tf 


Jr 


W 




Of 


I - 


ser, 


roll - 


ing 


ra 


pid - 


iy. 




tf 


^ 












•r 




W 


* 


* 


*~ 


mf 




- — ^_ 



A simple rule in this connection is : 

(i) Avoid the same phrase or cadence at similarly recur- 
ring pauses, especially in reading rhyme. 

(2) Avoid repeating the same set of phrases, in the same 
order, in the current melody of successive sentences. 

An error to be avoided in reading consists in employing, 
in the effort to produce the effect of suspension at pauses 
where there is a close dependence of parts, the rising third 
or fifth, instead of the rising tritone. ditone, or the mono- 



Intonation at Pauses. 229 

tone, with upward concretes. These wider intervals have 
an expressive character, which is foreign to the plain dia- 
tonic melody. 

Examples for Practice on Intonation at Pal- 

169. The simple exercise of counting already given in 
the study of the current melody, may also be employed to 
great advantage in order to become familiar with the melody 
at pauses. The numerals should be divided into groups, 
and the various phrases of near and remote connection ap- 
plied to their final syllable, closing the last group with 
some form of cadence. It is needless to illustrate the ap- 
plication of this practice, as it can not fail to be understood 
from the counting exercises given in the preceding division. 
The ingenious teacher can diversify this exercise to any 
extent for the purposes of teaching children. The employ- 
ment of counting has here an additional value as a breath- 
ing exercise, a quick indraught of breath being taken at 
the shorter pause, and a full inspiration at the complete 
periods. 

An excellent exercise in teaching children or young 
readers the effects of the rising and falling second in the 
current of melody, and also the effect of intonation at 
pauses, is as follows : 

Take any sample sentence, such as:" The cat caught the 
bird" and arrange it as one long word, without space or 
capitals, thus: " thecatcaughtthebird." Then let the pupil 
pick out each word, which he will pronounce naturally as 
an object of independent sense, not knowing, and hence 
not vocally indicating its relation to those following. 

Next let him, after having distinguished all the words in 
this way, repeat them as they stand in the sentence. In 
this his voice will naturally employ the rising concretes, 
excepting at the close. Taking the sentence given, we 



230 Murdoch's Elocution. 

would have a simple melody something like the follow- 
ing : 



The 


cat 


caught the bird. 


mi - 


*f 




*-* 



This would be divided into two groups : the noun and 
its modifiers, and the verb with the words attaching to it : 
" The cat | caught the bird." \ 

Now, let another phrase be added, as: " The cat caught 
the bird that was in the cage." The voice does not here 
use the concluding phrase at the bird, on account of the 
added and closely connected thought which follows. The 
intonation of the sentence, then, would take something 
like the following form : 



The cat caught the 


bird 

mi 


that 


was 


in 


the 


cage. 


mi * ' \mf ** * 


mi 


mf 


* 


~f~ 




w \ w 




w ^ 



A rising ditone or monotone could also be given at the 
bird, and still illustrate the suspensive sense. 

The intonation at pauses, together with their proper and 
relative duration, may be further illustrated by adding 
another member to the same sentence, continuing the 
sense. Thus: " The cat \ caught the bird \ that was in the 
cage, \\but Mary saw her | a?id took the bu'd away" Here 
the partial cadence, or the monotone with last concrete 
falling, or the monad cadence, may be used at cage to 
make the ear recognize the continuation of the sense in the 
last member. 

This method of leading the child to observe for himself, 
and then to point out to him the causes of the effects he 



Intonation at Pauses. 



231 



has recognized, is one of the simplest and most certain 
methods of instructing him in principles, and cultivating 
his ear at the same time. I give this example merely as 
an illustration of the many ways in which a teacher may 
simplify and illustrate the principles of speech. 



170. Sentences for Practice on Intonation at Pauses. 

I One, two, three, | is one part of ten ; | four, five, and six, | 
constitute the second part, | and seven, eight, nine, and ten | compose 
the remainder. Count them | one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, 
eight, nine, ten, || you have not counted correctly. Count again, one, 
two, etc. 

In the above exercise, the numerals are upward seconds, 
varied in the different phrases of melody with partial 
cadence at the semicolon. The next phrase will be marked 
by a rising ditone at part, with triad of the cadence at the 
period. The mistake in counting will probably be made 
by giving each numeral a downward instead of a rising 
concrete. 

"The loving parent takes special care to enlarge the mental 
power of his children ; also, to provide for their necessary and 
growing physical wants. In thus doing, he only complies with the 
laws of nature and reason, strengthened by the teachings of wisdom 
and virtue, having for their basis the divine commands, as written 
on the tablets, which were intrusted to Moses amid the thunder and 
the smoke of the holy mountain." 

The semicolon, in the former sentence, might be marked 
by a partial cadence ; the period, by the feeble cadence, 
made from a rise through a tritone on physical ; doing, by 
a rising ditone; and the words and reason carried up by a 
rising tritone to mark the close continuation of thought 
with having for their basis ; the introduced matter must be 
made apparent through the rising ditone on virtue. 



232 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Commands may be made distinctive by being struck 
above the current melody, and coming down a third, which 
will not separate it from the following thought. The word 
Moses may be used as a preparation for the full cadence, 
The teacher should analyze other loose sentences of con- 
tinued sense; placing them on the blackboard, and allow- 
ing the scholars to mark off the sentences, and also point 
the continuation of thought by the pausal intonations. 



Downward Movements of the Voice in the Diatonic 
Melody. 

171. In the plain use of language in the current of 
thoughtive utterance, the upward movements, particularly 
in the concrete progression, are the rule, while the down- 
ward are the exception. For this reason, the diagrams 
already given for the first study of melody are all notated 
with rising concretes, excepting at the cadence and some 
other pauses. The falling concrete, and an occasional fall- 
ing ditone or tritone, gives a pleasing variety to the cur- 
rent melody, and should be introduced to relieve reading 
of that species of monotony arising from an exclusive use 
of the upward movements, a very great fault with almost 
all unskilled readers. 

172. All the words of plain narrative language, although 
inexpressive, are not of equal importance. Plain thought 
must be enforced, and distinctions effected, antithetic and 
otherwise, by giving some special significance to particular 
words. This is called distinctive emphasis. The present 
instruction is intended to teach the means of effecting such 
emphasis, leaving to the student's intelligence and appre- 
hension of the sense of the language, the words requiring 
prominence in reading plain narrative or a statement of 
facts. 



Intonation at Pauses. 



All downward movements, com rete and discrete, pro- 
duce an effect of greater gravity or weight than rising 
movements, and words of two or more syllables may re- 
ceive distinctive emphasis by executing a falling ditone on 
the accented syllable, as in the word revolution^ in the 
phrase, " This revolution overthrew the government" 

The diatonic melody consists of successive concrete and 
discrete seconds, moving up and down relatively to an 
initial note. In some forms of the melody of the cadence, 
to produce a varied and satisfactory close to the ear, the 
voice moves beyond the concrete of a second into that of 
a third, as in the first and second duad and the feeble 
cadence. The use of the third, either rising or falling, if 
it receive no more coloring from force, time, and pitch 
than belongs to the moderate character of the diatonic 
melody, becomes an allowable and very satisfactory means 
of distinction in this melody, and has been termed the 
distinctive third ; this, with the shorter wave of the second, 
and the falling ditone, when variously employed, will pro- 
duce simply distinctive emphasis; i. e., not amounting to 
what has been termed expression, which gives to words, in 
phrases, about the same prominence that accent gives to 
syllables in pollysyllabic words. 

The falling ditone and the distinctive third may thus be 
used for the purposes of designation, or of announcing a 
subject or topic in didactic style, introducing a person or 
an event in narrative, or an object in descriptive style. 
The upward and downward third is employed for distinc- 
tion in contrasts, as in one of two antithetic words or 
phrases. 

Examples for Practice. 

For other vocal elements which unite with the diatonic 
intonation in the utterance of plain narrative or thoughtive 
language, the student is referred to •" 156. 

M. E.— '20. 



234 Murdoch's Elocution. 

"I remember listening, in the midst of a crowd, many years ago, 
to the voice of a girl — a mere child of sixteen summers — till I was 
bewildered." 

"And the prayer, that my mouth is too full to express, 
Swells my heart, that thy shadow may never be less." 

" He gave to misery all he had— a tear, 
He gain'd from Heaven — 'twas all he wish'd — a friend." 

"The duties of a citizen of a republic formed the subject of the 
orator's address." 

"The progress of the Italian opera in this country will form the 
subject of this essay." 

"'Tis hard to say if greater want of skill 
Appears in writing or in judging ill." 

"I had rather be the first man in that village than the second 
in Rome." 

In connection with the study of intonation at pauses, 
the poetic monotone introduces a beautiful movement. 

"The 'poetic monotone' is properly the distinctive 'second' 
which gives to the language of verse or of poetic prose, when not 
marked by emphatic or impassioned force, its peculiar melody, as 
contrasted with the ' partial cadence ' of ' complete sense in clauses.' 
The two faults commonly exemplified in passages such as the follow- 
ing, are: 1st, That of terminating a clause which forms complete 
sense, with a 'partial cadence;' 2d, That of terminating it with 
the upward ' slide of the third.' Both these errors turn verse into 
prose, or render poetic language in prose dry and inexpressive, as 
both these modes of voice are the appropriate language of fact, and 
not of feeling or melody." 

Refer to Byron's "Aspect of Death" (see subdued force.) 
This long periodic sentence requires great care in group- 



Intonation at Pauses, 235 



ing, and variety in the use of poetic monotone. Again, 
the following lines from Byron's "Mazeppa" require the 
same treatment : 

11 Away ! — away ! — and on we dash! — 
Torrents less rapid and less rash. 
Away, away, my steed and I, 
Upon the pinions of the wind, 
All human dwellings left behind : 
We sped like meteors through the sky, 
When with its crackling sound the night 
Is chequered with the northern light: — 
From out the forest prance 
A trampling troop, — I see them come! 
A thousand horse — and none to ride ! 
With flowing tail, and flying mane, 
Wide nostrils, never stretched by pain, 
Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein, 
And feet that iron never shod, 
And flanks unscarred by spur or rod, — 
A thousand horse, — the wild, the free, — 
Like waves that follow o'er the sea, 
Came thickly thundering on : — 
They stop, — they start, — they snuff the air, 
Gallop a moment here and there, 
Approach, retire, wheel round and round, 
Then plunging back with sudden bound, — 
They snort, — they foam — neigh — swerve aside, 
And backward to the forest fly, 
]>y instinct, from a human eye." 

"Within, the master's desk is seen, 
Deep scarred by raps official ; 
The warping floor, the battered seats, 
The jack-knife's carved initial; 

The charcoal frescos on its wall ; 

Its door's worn sill, betraying 
The feet that, creeping slow to school, 

Went storming out to playing!" 

— Whittier. 



Chapter XIX. 
Expressive Intonation. 

173. Discourse never continues long in the simple 
thoughtive melody, as occasional necessities for emphasis 
or expression upon certain words will introduce into its 
current variations of the wider or expressive concrete and 
discrete intervals. 

The expressive character of the upward movements de- 
pend upon that inherent suspensive property of the voice 
indicative of incompleteness in the thought. 

The rising third, fifth, and octave are all expressive of 
interrogation, varying in the degree of earnestness or in- 
tensity with the extent of each. They also confer, in 
varied degrees, when not interrogative, an emphatic distinc- 
tion upon the words they mark. 

The rising octave expresses the most intense degree of 
interrogation and emphasis, and accompanies questions of 
a sneering, taunting, peevish, contemptuous, or rallying 
character. As an emphatic distinction, not interrogative, it 
expresses surprise, astonishment, admiration, etc., when they 
imply a degree of doubt or inquiry. Let the word indeed 
be uttered with strong surprise, mingled with keen inquiry, 
and the voice will rise on the second syllable through an 
octave. In the sneering question of Shylock, exulting 
over Antonio, we have an instance of the extreme em- 
phatic character of the rising concrete octave : 

"Hath a dog money? Is it possible 
A cur should lend three thousand ducats?" 
(236) 



Expressive Intonation. 237 

An example of the emphasis of the rising discrete octave 
may be exhibited in the exasperated interrogative of 
Hamlet, addressed to Laertes, on a succession of short 
syllabic quantities : 

"Zounds, show me what thou 'It do; 
Woo't weep? Woo't fight? Woo't/w/. ? Woo't tear thyself ? " 

The concrete rise or fall through the wider intervals re- 
quires a syllable of long quantity, as in tear, for its drawn 
out sound; whereas the immutables, or shorter mutable 
syllables, can only be thrown into altitude and depression 
by discrete skips, their natural means of distinction in 
pitch. 

174. The concrete intervals impress the ear more 
strongly, owing to the time of their duration, but the dis- 
crete can be made strongly impressive by radical stress. 
The general expressive character of the upward intonation, 
under the modifications of either concrete or discrete rise 
or change in radical pitch, is, however, the same. 

The rising fifth is expressive of a less piercing and more 
dignified, though equally forcible, interrogative. It is the 
most common form of question. As an emphatic expres- 
sion, it conveys wonder, admiration, and similar states of 
mind, when implying a slight degree of doubt. In this 
connection, it is also expressive of more dignity than the 
emphatic rising octave. In Satan's words, the admirative 
emphasis of exultation on thee may be given in the rising 
concrete fifth : 

" Evil, be thou my good : by thee at least 
Divided empire with Heaven's king I hold." 

The emphasis of the discrete rising fifth is illustrated in 
the following lines, where the immutable syllable is given 
the admirative expression by being jumped from the cur- 
rent melody through the extent of this interval : 



238 Murdoch's Elocution. 

"Which, if not victory, 
Is yet revenge ! " 

The rising concrete and discrete third are appropriate to 
that form of interrogation employed in the most moderate 
forms of inquiry; it is not connected with passionative states 
of mind, and is used simply for the purposes of seeking 
information. It is also employed for a moderate emphasis, 
and especially for marking emphatic words of a conditional, 
concessive, or hypothetical character. As an example of the 
interrogative third, the following may be given : 

"What, looked he frowningly ? " 

The dignified and less intensive distinction of the rising 
third may be applied to the word he in the following 
lines : 

"Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? 
The infernal serpent, he it was whose guile 
Stirred up with envy and revenge." 

As an example of a discrete third, we may take the 
word victory, in the example given, to illustrate the fifth, 
simply giving it with less earnestness. Its character of 
concession is also shown in the hypothetical clause of this 
sentence : 

"'If I must contend,'' said he, 
'Best with the best, the sender not the sent.'" 

It may be asked, what is the difference in the employ- 
ment of the wider rising intervals for interrogation, and for 
that of emphasis only. Where the rising intervals are 
used merely for emphatic purposes, the voice, after having 
risen in pitch, returns immediately to or near the line of 
the current melody by a discrete skip, continuing there on 
the unemphatic or unaccented syllables until a further em- 
phasis is required; as, for illustration, in the following, 



Expressive Intonation. 239 

where the rising fifth is employed as an admirative em- 
phasis to point the word beauty : 

"Tears like the rain-drops may fall without measure, 
But rapt - ure and beau - ty they can not re - call." 



— *^ -j 

¥ * + J ¥ 4 


" " * 



On the other hand, where a sentence of thorough inter- 
rogation requires the rising octave or fifth on its long and 
accented syllables, the voice, instead of descending again 
to the current melody on the short and unaccented sylla- 
bles, as in the preceding instance, continues on these at 
the summit of the vanish of the long concrete until it be- 
comes necessary to drop discretely, to rise again on the 
next long and important syllable. 



Wider Downward Movements. 

175. Positiveness and affirmation, directly the reverse of 
the doubtful or suspensive character of the rising move- 
ments, mark in a greater or less degree all downward in- 
tonation. There is a finality in such movements related in 
its effects to the conclusive character of the cadence — a 
positiveness of declaration or assertion that admits of no 
uncertainty or doubt. 

The wider falling movements are used exclusively for 
emphasis, and they place words in a very vivid and impres- 
sive light. They express strong conviction and command, 
denunciation, indignation and resolution. They also express 
wonder, surprise, astonishment, and admiration when these 
sentiments overrule all doubt or inquiry in the mind. 

Let the student utter the words you shall as if enforcing 
a former refusal, and -then the falling third will be heard. 



240 Murdoch's Elocution. 

More earnestly and positively uttered, the interval on shall 
will be a downward fifth. Then, if pronounced as if the 
matter could not be gainsaid, and as a final decision, shall 
will pass through the downward octave. 

The downward concrete is employed in two ways : in 
one, the descent proceeds from the line of the current 
melody ; in the other, from a line of pitch above the curi'ent 
?nelody, descending either to it or below it, according to the 
strength of the emphasis. The weakest emphasis of a 
downward concrete is that made fro?n the line of the 
melody, the expression becoming more impressive as the radical 
rises by a discrete movement above the line. 

The same holds true of the wider rising concretes, the 
discrete interval being always in a direction opposite to the 
concrete. When the concrete is upward, the discrete de- 
scends in proportion to the emphasis of the former. Take 
the sentence: "Sir, /thank the government for this meas- 
ure , ." If read in simply a grave and dignified manner, the 
word thank requires a downward third; but should it be 
given with a rising discrete interval and a rising concrete, 
the expression of the sentence will change from gravity to 
lightness, and the emphasis lose its impressive character 
derived from the effect of downward movements. 

We have an instance of the descending concrete octave 
as expressive of admiration and astonishment in the words 
well done, uttered as a strong exclamation of mirthful sur- 
prise. The first word well should be uttered in high pitch, 
and done should descend concretely from that height with 
extended quantity. 

If the two words of the interjection Heigh, ho I be 
uttered on the extremes of the natural voice, or of high 
and low pitch, a discrete skip of an octave will be made. 

A falling discrete third and fifth would be similarly used 
to emphasize the immutable syllables of the word attack, in 
the strong and repeated enforcement of the assertion of the 



Expressive Intonation. 241 

following sentences: "// 7aas no feint, it was an attack." 
" I tell you it ?c>as a premeditated attack." 

Dr. Rush illustrates the emphasis of the discrete intona- 
tion upon syllables that will not admit of the wide descent 
of the concrete to express their positive affirmation by the 
following notation, in which the words Brutus and ambitious 
are distinguished by the radical skip downward : 



Yet 


Bru - 


tus 


says 


he 


was 


am - 


hi - 


tious. 




tf 




-^~ 


• 


sf 


tf 


tf 




4 




W 












-^f- 












tf 



175. In Hamlet's reply to his mother's question: " Jf it 
be" (if death be the common lot) " Why seems it so partic- 
ular with thee ? " Severe and dignified conviction is to be 
expressed on the word is of his reply : " Seems Madam, nay 
it is! / know not seems." The intonation of this is ex- 
hibited in the following notation : 



Seems Ma - dam, nay, 


it 


is! 


I 


know 


not 


seems. 


i 


/ ^ of 


^ 




d 


#r 


rf 




J ¥ ¥ * 


W 










% 



But the lightness of the surprise expressed in the simple 
radical and vanish is not adequate to the gravity of the 
reply; therefore, this is enhanced in the utterance by the 
addition of the swell of the median stress on the descend- 
ing fifth. 

The employment of the expressive intervals, except in 
the case of the third, which may form a drift, is but occa- 
sional, and the unaccented syllables and unemphatic words 
still conform to the laws of the diatonic melody. There 

may be a succession of emphatic intonations constituting 
m. e.— 21. 



242 Murdochs Elocution. 

an emphatic phrase, or partial drift, but the general current 
of all language is diatonic, — the melody forming the 
neutral background, as it were, for the more vivid intona- 
tion. In intonation at pauses, where the downward con- 
crete movement is introduced for emphasis, preceding a 
pause of close connection, the emphatic syllable has a 
change of radical pitch above the current melody, and the 
concrete does not descend below. This movement many 
persons mistake for a rising inflection ; thus, in the follow- 
ing sentence, where the word queen is to be emphasized 
by the falling third, the latter would lose its emphatic 
effect if employed simply as a feeble cadence : 

"No, by the rood not so; 
You are the queen: your husband's brother's wife." 

The difference between the downward emphatic third 
and the feeble cadence is this: in the former, the voice, 
after descending on the interval, instead of letting go of the 
sound immediately, continues it on the organs by the impli- 
cating movement until the opening of the following sylla- 
ble, usually on a higher pitch. 



The Semitone. 

177. The semitone is expressive of all the plaintive, 
pathetic emotions, — grief, distress, sorrow, tenderness, com- 
passion, pity, complaint. It may be introduced into the 
diatonic melody as an occasional emphasis on single words, 
or it may continue as a pathetic drift through one or more 
sentences. In the latter case, the melody becomes chro- 
matic, proceeding entirely through semitones.* Where the 



* For an extended treatment of the chromatic melody, the student 
is referred to Dr. Rush's "Philosophy of the Voice." 



Expressive Intonation. 243 

state of mind requires that the plaintive expression should 
prevail, simply place the semitone on all accented or in- 
definite syllables, and the unimportant syllables will natur- 
ally or sympathetically fall into the same interval. An 
example of the emphatic use of the semitone may be 
given on the second too of these lines from the soliloquy 
of Hamlet : 

" O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, 
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew." 

This word, as repeated, is expressive of a state of 
pathetic despondency. 

The following will furnish an example of the semitonic 
drift in which this pathetic interval should mark all of the 
important syllables in the expression of deep sorrow : 

"O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I 
had died for ihee i O Absalom, my son, my son ! " 

The student should review and practice elementary exer- 
cises on semitone. See ^[69. 



Exercises on the Expressive Intervals. 

178. A preparatory exercise of the tables of concrete 
and discrete intervals on the elements and words, as in 
Chapter VII, will render the organs pliant in the follow- 
ing examples : 

RISING CONCRETE OCTAVE. 

"Am /my brother's keeper?" 
"Give Brutus a statue with his ancestors?'''' 

RISING DISCRETE OCTAVE. 
"You were paid to fight against Alexander, not to rail at him." 



244 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

FALLING CONCRETE OCTAVE. 
"Awake! arise! or be forever fallen!" 

The mutable syllable wake will allow only the falling 
concrete fifth. 

FALLING DISCRETE OCTAVE. 
" Pale, trembling coward! there I throw my gage." 

RISING CONCRETE FIFTH. 
"He said you were incomparable?" 

Hamlet. — Saw who? 

Horatio. — My Lord, the king, your father. 

Hamlet. — The king, my /a-ther ? 

FALLING CONCRETE FIFTH. 

"The Assyrian came down, like a wolf on the fold." 

"/am the Resurrection and the Life!" 

"To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!" 

In the above, the radical pitch of the first Greek is a 
third above the last. 

RISING DISCRETE FIFTH. 

"Back to thy punishment! false fugitive, 
And to thy speed add wings." 

"Unhand me, gentlemen, 
By heaven, I '11 make a ghost of him that lets me ! 
I say away ! — Go on ; I '11 follow thee ! " 



Expressive Intonation. 245 

We have here an instance of the emphatic power of 
change in radical pitch on the word make, — it is lifted at 
least a fifth above the current melody. 

FALLING CONCRETE THIRD, FIFTH, AND OCTAVE. 
"If it were the last word I had to utter, it should be no! no!! 



RISING AND FALLING DISCRETE FIFTH. 

"Then followed with a desperate leap, 
Down fifty fathoms to the deep." 

"Well, honor is the subject of my story." 



RISING CONCRETE THIRD. 

"But this effusion of such manly drops, 
This shower blown up by tempest of the soul, 
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amaz'd 
Than I had seen the vaulty top of heaven 
Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors." 



'I pray thee put into yonder port, 
For I fear a hurricane." 



DOWNWARD CONCRETE THIRD. 

" 'T is well, we'll try the temper of your heart." 
"Tell him my answer is no." 
I am amazed; yes, my Lords, I am amazea at his Grace's speech.' 



246 Murdoch ] s Elocution. 



RISING DISCRETE THIRD. 

"'Come back, come back, Horatius!' 
Loud cried the fathers all; 
' Back, Lartius ! back, Herminius ! 
Back, ere the ruin fall ! " 

Ay ! sputter, thou roasting apple, 

Spit forth thy spleen ! 't will ease thy heart. 



FALLING DISCRETE THIRD. 

"Is it not monstrous that this player here, 
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion." 

" Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, 
I give my hand and my heart to this vote." 

"While an armed foe remained in my country I would nez<er lay 
down my arms ! " 

"Believest thou this?" 

The word this descends a third in radical pitch, and 
rises concretely. 

"Then Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, 
Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest." 

Heart is struck a third above the current melody, and 
falls a concrete fifth. Liest falls a third in radical pitch, 
from the height to which the word throat carries the voice, 
and sweeps downward through a falling concrete octave. 



Chapter XX. 
Uses of the Wave in Expression. 

179. Concrete intonation, in the form of the wave, is 
one of the most impressive elements in the whole range of 
vocal expression. Like the wider intervals, it serves to 
give expression or emphatic distinction to words, by ex- 
tending the quantity of long and indefinite syllables. The 
wave is simply a doubling of the rising concrete into the 
falling, or the falling into the rising. As the last constit- 
uent, however, leaves the final impression on the ear, its 
prevailing color of expression will be taken from the direc- 
tion of this last constituent. If it be upward, the effect 
will be suspensive, interrogative, or sprightly; if down- 
ward, it will leave the reverse impression of positiveness, 
wonder, or gravity. 

Like the simple concretes, the expression of the wave is 
modified and intensified by the application of stress to its 
course, and by the qualities of aspiration and guttural 
vibration. 

The wave, then, according to its form and other modifi- 
cations, expresses variously admiration, surprise, inquiry, 
mirthful wonder, sneer, or scorn. 

The Single Equal Wave. 

180. The direct wave of the octave is expressive of the 
highest degree of astonishment, admiration, command, and 
similar states of mind, if executed in the lower ranges of 

(*47) 



248 Murdoch's Elocution. 

pitch. Carried into the higher ranges, it runs into falsetto, 
and thence loses its strongly impressive character, becom- 
ing a sign of undignified mocking and jest. 

From its extreme character, the first form of the octave 
is seldom employed, except as a sign of powerful emotion, 
suddenly struck from the organs by some amazing situation 
or circumstance, as in the case of Hamlet, on seeing the 
ghost of his father, when he exclaims: "Angels and min- 
isters of grace defend us ! " 

Here the doubting astonishment of the rising octave on 
the first syllable is overborne by the positiveness of the in- 
vocation, which descends on the falling concrete, making 
the wave of the octave represented in the following nota- 
tion : 

An - gels and min - is - ters of grace de - fend us ! 



hA~-^^ 



The direct wave of the fifth is similar in its expressive 
effect to that of the octave, though in a less degree. The 
emphasis of positive and vaunting authority to be expressed 
on the word Thy in the following speech of Death, ad- 
dressed to Satan, from "Paradise Lost," would take this 
wave for its proper distinction : 

"And breath'st defiance here and scorn 
Where I reign king ? And to enrage 
The more Thy King and Lord." 

The inverted form of both the fifth and octave are ex- 
pressive of scorn and surprised interrogation, as in the 
following examples : 



The Wave in Expression. 249 

"Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame!" 
" fiu/n the fleet and ruin Fiance?" 

The inverted form is called the interrogative wave. 
The waves of the fifth and octave belong almost exclu- 
sively to the more vivid forms of colloquial dialogue, or to 
the intensified energy of the drama or of oratory. The 
wave of the third is of much more common occurrence. 
It is usually employed to mark moderate emphasis requir- 
ing a dignified extension in quantity, distinction, and an- 
tithesis when used in the lower ranges of pitch. In the 
higher ranges, it is expressive of more lightness and famil- 
iarity; this is true of all waves. The direct wave of the 
third is heard in the dignified denial of the following words : 

" Nay, not so, 
When God is with our righteous cause." 

The inverted wave becomes emphatic in the following 

sentence : 

" upon the watery plain 

The wrecks are all thy deed." 

In the lively and pointed antithesis of Beatrice's speech, 
we find an instance of the direct and inverted wave of 
the third also : 

"In our last encounter, four of his live wits went halting off; 
and mno is the whole man governed with one." 

When aspiration is added to either the direct or inverted 
forms of the wider waves, it produces the effect of scorn 
or contempt, in addition to that of affirmation or inquiry. 
Final stress intensifies the impressiveness of their charac- 
ter. Median stress applied at the juncture of the constit- 
uents of any wave, always adds the force of dignity to its 
effect. Waves uttered without the swell of the median 
stress and the fullness of the orotund, give a strongly sig- 
nificant, but familiar, colloquial, and, if uttered with short 
time, flippant character to the words they distinguish. 



250 Murdoch's Elocution, 



The Wave of the Second. 

181. The shorter wave of the second, as an inexpressive 
distinction of words in the plain thoughtive melody, has 
been described. The longer wave of the second is invari- 
ably combined with the swell of the median stress. It 
gives a dignity and solemnity to the syllable it marks, and 
naturally accompanies a preponderance of the phrase of 
the monotone in the melody, and a full orotund quality. 

The wave of the second can not be said to confer more 
than accentual distinction on any single word, but used on 
all of the extendible syllables of the diatonic melody, it 
gives to the otherwise matter-of-fact, and tripping character 
of the short, and generally upward, movements, the slow 
march and solemn swell of gravity, solemnity, or grandeur, 
thus producing what may be called the Expressive Diatonic 
Melody. Unlike the waves of the wider intervals, there is 
but little difference in the effect of its direct or inverted 
forms. It is the only form of the wave which will bear 
continuance in a drift. As an example of the dignified 
solemnity of the longer wave of the second, combined with 
a prevailing monotone, low pitch, and full orotund quality, 
we have the following notations by Dr. Rush : the first, a 
passage from the church service; and the second, from 
"Paradise Lost" descriptive of the fallen angel's royal 
state : 



The Lord is in His ho - ly 


tern - pie. 


Let 


^^ ^V gf^ ^^ ^^ €_• «r 


^~N ^ 


tf 


.. qp n ^*n qp ^ ^.w mmi -— --W - " "^ " 



all the 


earth 


keep 


si - lence be - 


fore Him. 


^^ rf~ 




«r 


C N ^T" v ^_ 


^-n _ 


•^ * W ' - • ^ 



The Wave in Expression. 251 



High on ■ throne of roy - al state, which far 



<^ « T «^«, 1 * «^| 



Out - 


shone the 


wealth of 


Or - mus 


and 


of 


Ind, 


* 


•r^- 




~ «T 


* 


^ 


^~^\ 


1. -V. » ^_x w 



Or 


where the 


gor - geous East, 


with 


rich ■ 


est 


hand, 


flf 


*^^ 


t_/^ * 


Al 


* 


^ 


f~~^\ 






^ 


^ 









Show - ers on 


her kings bar - bar - ic pearl and gold, 


tf^«* A 


-. *-v ^ * * w\*r m 





Sa - tan ex - alt - ed sat. 



* «t 



These extracts furnish instances of the purely admirative 
or reverentive drift. It is adapted to much of the lan- 
guage of Milton, Shakespeare, and the Bible, in reading 
which the colloquial character of the thoughtive diatonic 
would be too familiar in its effect, and the wider waves 
and intervals incompatible with the calm though elevated 
state of mind to be expressed. 

The equal wave of the semitone simply adds the effect 
of time to the plaintiveness of this interval. Its effect 
differs but little whether direct or inverted. The semitone 
is almost always employed under this form, as the emotions 
it expresses are in most cases inseparable from long drawn 
quantity, combined usually with low pitch and prevailing 
monotone. The dignified supplication of penitence im- 



252 Murdoch's Elocution. 

plied in the following response from the church service 
would be given w r ith this wave: 

"And thou, O Lord, have mercy on us miserable offenders." 

The Unequal Wave. 

182. The unequal wave has been described as a continu- 
ation of two intervals of unequal extent. This, like the 
equal, may be either direct or inverted, single or double; 
it is expressive of admiration, wo?ider, positiveness, and inter- 
rogation, in different degrees, according to the extent of its 
constituents and the direction of the last. It is expressive 
of scorn, contempt, irony, ridicule, etc., when there is a wide 
variation in the constituents, and the last bears the final 
stress, aspiration, or guttural quality. We have an exam- 
ple of the unequal wave of an ascending fifth and de- 
scending octave, with strong aspiration on the word boy, in 
the contemptuous reply of Coriolanus to the Volscian gen- 
eral who calls him a "boy of tears." 

" False hound ! 
If you have writ your annals true! 'Tis there, 
That, like an eagle in a dove-cot, I 
Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli ; — 
Alone I did it,— Boy!" 

The unequal wave of a rising third and falling fifth, with 
strong aspiration or guttural vibration, and vanishing stress, 
will give the sneering expression to the word yea, in the 
following lines : 

"From this day forth 
I '11 use you for my mirth, yea for my laughter, " 
When you are waspish." 

The unequal inverted wave of the fifth and octave, or 
of the third and fifth, may be exhibited on the word your 



The Wave i?i Expression. 253 

of the sneering question: " You claim him for your 
friend V While the scorn of the reply may be expressed 
by a similar direct wave with aspiration and vanishing 
stress: " Yes, /claim him for my friend." This form of 
the wave may be found in the passionate language of the 
drama, or of oratorical fervor, and in what Dr. Rush calls 
the colloquial cant of the voice; but it does not enter into 
the more grave and graceful forms of speech. 

There is a form of the unequal wave which does not 
convey the expression of scorn and contempt : it is that in 
which the first constituent is a semitone, and the second a 
wider falling interval. It expresses plaintive or querulous 
positiveness, surprise, or appeal, as in the lines: "You 
wrong me every way, you wrong ??ie Brutus" A similar 
movement is heard in the child's peevish expression of de- 
termination, "'/ won't!" A similar unequal inverted 
wave of the wider intervals is expressive of plaintive inter- 
rogation, as in the following instance : 

" Forlorn of thee, 
Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?" 



The Double and Continued Waves. 

183. The double and continued waves always require 
indefinite syllables. They naturally grow out of the single 
forms. If there is much intensity or energy in the utter- 
ance, which tends to prolong the time of the syllable, the 
concrete must continue to double back and forward upon 
itself, while the sound is sustained, otherwise it will fall 
into the note of song. 

The double or continued wave may be illustrated by the 
action of the ball, which returns and rebounds again from 
the object struck through the force of its first impulse. 
The wave of the octave is rarely extended into the double 



254 Murdoch's Elocution. 

or continued forms, except for the purposes of mocking 
and exulting laughter. 

A double direct wave of the third may be given on the 
second they of the following sentence: " They tell us to be 
moderate, while they revel in profusion." 

Intense scorn is expressed in both the equal and unequal 
double wave if given with stress, aspiration, or guttural 
vibration. The word cringe, in the following scornful lines, 
should be thus distinguished : 

" High up in Heaven with songs to hymn his praise, 
And practiced distances to cringe not fight." 

A discrete skip downward on the closing immutable 
syllables will heighten the effect. We have an example of 
the expression produced by radical changes in pitch, where 
the language forbids the use of the continuous concrete 
wave, in the following example : 



Fit bod - y to fit head, 


Well paired with all thy sins ! 


A A 


A A flfc 


\ ^ 


r y T n 


cl at A A 


^ i * *#~^ 


\ ^ " " 


^ • \ 



The scornful effect is produced by the discrete skips of 
a fifth, called the discrete imitation of the concrete wave 
of a fifth in the second notation. 

An exact knowledge of the number of constituents of 
the continued wave is by no means necessary to their prac- 
tical application. It is enough to know that the voice is 
borne along the doubling flexures by the intensification of 
feeling. 

Examples for Practice on the Wave. 

184. Practice elements and syllables on the tables of 
concrete intervals and waves, Chapter VII. 



The Wave in Expression. 255 

DIRECT AND INVERTED WAVES OF THE SECOND. 

"Roll on thou deep and dark blue Ocean roil" 

M Oh! that this lovely vale were mine!" 

"Holy! holy! holy! Lord God of Sabaoth ! " 

" ' A'ay now, my child,' said Alice the nurse." 

"Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness" 

The wave of the second, median stress, monotone, and 
slow movement, may be observed in the following example 
from Milton : 

"Thee, Father, first they sung, immutable, 
Immortal, infinite, Eternal King." 

WAVE OF THE SEMITONE. 

"O judgment thou art fled to brutish beasts, 
And men have lost their reason! Bear with me; 
My heart is in the coffin there with Cesar, 
And I must pause till it come back to me." 

— "Julius Cesar," Shakespeare. 

"Brutus hath riv'd my heart; 
A friend should bear a friend's infirmities, 
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are." 

— "Julius Ccrsar," Shakespeare. 

" Let me go hence, 
And in some cloister's school of penitence, 
Across those stones, that pave the way to heaven, 
Walk barefoot, till my guilty soul be shriven!'''' 

— Shakespeare. 



256 Murdoch's Elocution. 

DIRECT AND INVERTED WAVE OF THE THIRD. 

"I come! I come! ye have called me long." 

" Why, cousin! Why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy — not a word?" 
"Not one to throw at a dog." 

" A man is likely to pass his time but ill who has so many 
different parties to please." 

DIRECT AND INVERTED WAVES OF THE FIFTH. 

"Away! — Away! — and on we dash!" 

" 'She is won! we are gone over bank, bush, and scaur, 

They'll Yiaxe Jleet steeds that follow, ' quoth young Lochinvar. 

THE UNEQUAL WAVE. 

" National pride, the independence of our country. These, we 
are told by the minister, are vulgar topics; fitted for the meridian 
of the mob ; but utterly unworthy the consideration of the noble 
Lord who condescends to instruct it." 

" Hadst thou alleged 
To thy deserted host this cause of flight, 
Thou surely had'st not come sole fugitive." 

" From this day forth, 
I'll use you for my mirth.''' x 

Baradas. — O, my Lord, we were prompt 

To avenge you — we were. 
Riclielieu. — We ? Ha ! ha ! You hear 

My liege ! What page, man, in the last court grammar, 

Made you a plural? 

— " Richelieu,' 1 '' Bulwer-Lytton. 



The Wave i?i Expression. 257 

Juliet's language in soothing her nurse employs waves 
of a second and a third. The nurse uses more extended 
waves, and in the interrogatives unequal waves are used : 

Nurse. — Beshrew your heart, for sending me about, 

To catch my death with jaunting up and down ! 
Juliet.— V faith, I am sorry that thou art not well: 

Sweet, siveel, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love ? 
Nurse. — Your love says like an honest gentleman, 

And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, 

And, I warrant, a virtuous: — Where is your mother? 
Juliet. — Where is my mother? — why, she is within; 

Where should she be ? How oddly thou reply'st ! 

Your love says like an honest gentleman, — 

Where is your mother ? 

— "Romeo and Juliet, " Shakespeare. 



double and continued waves — Significant. 

" But, sirrah, henceforth 
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer. 
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means, 
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me 
As will displease you." 

— "Henry IV," Shakespeare. 



" Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe ? 
Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me 
you can not play upon me." 

"Hamlet," Shakespeare. 



"O upright judge! — Mark, Jew, — O, learned judge. 

A Daniel, still say I ; a second Daniel ! — 

I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word." 

— " Merchant of Venice," SHAKESPEARE. 

M. E — 22. 



Chapter XXI. 
Uses of the Tremor in Expression. 

185. The tremor has already been described as one of 
the forms of intonation, and it has been shown that it may 
follow the course of all the intervals, ascending or descend- 
ing, and the various forms of the wave. 

The expressive power of the tremor is exhibited in the 
gayety and merriment of laughter, and in the pathetic sounds 
of crying. In the first, it may be combined with all of 
the intervals of the scale except the semitone, and with all 
of the waves except the semitone. The abrupt iterated 
jets may also proceed in succession upon any one point on 
the scale. 

In laughter, the rapid tittelar concretes may pass through 
any interval but that of the semitone. The sprightliest 
and most varied effect of laughter is that in which the 
tremulous progression is made throughout what may be 
called a tittelar wave (that is, the tittles following the line 
of a wave of the smooth concrete), and is most agreeable 
when the tittles are clear and evenly accented, and follow 
each other in close and rapid succession. Pure laughter 
(unaccompanied with articulate words) is performed upon 
some of the tonic elements, and with a faint addition of 
the aspirate h; or it often changes in the course of its 
progress from one tonic sound to another, or from a short 
to a long one. 

As the tremor may accompany all of the intervals of the 
scale and the different waves, and as these have been 
(258) 



Use of Tremor in Expression. 259 

shown to bear different kinds and degrees of expression in 
themselves, it follows that this movement of the voice may 
appear under other modifications than those of simple joy 
and sorrow. Thus, laughter may express the passions 
of scorn, exultation, triumph, etc. In such cases, it 
derives its expression not only from the direction of its 
tittles, but from their union v.iih stress, aspiration, guttural 
vibration, etc. In exultant laughter, they would follow the 
course of a double or continued wave. In scorn, of an 
unequal wave with strong aspiration, etc. Thus, when 
Richelieu baffles the conspirators by his feigned death, he 
apostrophizes them as follows : 

11 Blood-hounds ! I laugh at ye, ha, ha, ha, we will 
Baffle them yet, ha, ha!" 

Here the tittles of the laughter indicated by ha, ha, ha, 
etc., would follow the winding course of a double wave 
with strong force, last constituent long and extending 
downward, and aspirated at the close. 

In crying, the tittelar concretes pass, in all cases, through 
the interval of a semitone, and may be carried by the 
tremulous progression through all the wider intervals and 
waves. The most plaintive effect of crying, however, is 
that in which the semitonic tittles are united with the 
tremulous progression through the semitonic interval or 
wave. 

In hysterical laughter, the voice will pass rapidly from 
the wider tittelar concretes which constitute laughter, to 
those of the semitone, the state of the mind being irreg- 
ular and uncontrolled. The tremor may be united with 
the words of articulate language, in which case it becomes 
one of the most striking elements of effect in speech. 
Combined with the wider intervals, or their waves, and 
with stress on syllables, it joins the sentiment of mirth, joy, 



260 Murdoch 's Elocution, 

admiration, exultation, or derision, to that of interrogation, 
surprise, command, scorn, etc., while it heightens the effect 
of the grief, supplication, or tenderness of the plain semi- 
tone. In short, the tremor serves to intensify the ex- 
pressive powers of all of the other vocal elements with 
which it is combined. Control once acquired over it, it 
should be used in moderation, as it is the accompaniment 
of only the most extreme forms of emotional expression, 
and in most cases is suitable only to the highest forms of 
dramatic utterance. 

If the tremor be given with a wave of the third on the 
word noblest, in the following lines, it will express the strong 
admiration and eulogy the sentence is meant to embody: 

"Thou art the ruins of the noblest man 
That ever lived in the tide of times." 

Tenderness, combined with admiration, would be ex- 
pressed by combining the tremor with the rising third on 
the word flower, in these lines from Tennyson's "Lady 
Clare : » 

"Why come you dressed like a village maid, 
That are the flower of the earth?" 

The laughing tremor will give the chuckling effect to the 
words of these lines of Falstaff, in speaking of his Ragged 
Regiment : 

"I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat; 
No eye hath seen such scare-crows." 

United with the semitone, the tremor will give the effect 
of crying on the words : 

" my son Absalom, my son Absalom, 
Would God, I had died for thee, 
Absalom, my son, my son/" 



Use of Tremor in Expression. 261 

In such cases, where tears seem to be united with lan- 
guage, the tremor always accompanies the semitone. It 
should not, however, be given on every syllable, but only 
on those having the strongest emphasis. Being so striking 
an element of expression, it can not be employed as a 
continued drift without producing an unpleasant monotony. 



Exercises for Practice on the Tremor. 

186. Having practiced the tremor on elements and 

words of the concrete intervals (see Chapter VII), the 

student must make his voice pliant in the use of the 

waves in the expression of the following sentiments, and 
the exercises for practice of the tremor: 

TREMOR IN JOY OR GAYETY. 

" Sweet, sweet, sweet, Pan ! 
Piercing sweet by the river! 
Blinding sweet, O Great God Pan ! " 

" When I look from my window at night, 
And the welkin above is all white, 
All throbbing and panting with stars, 
Among them, majestic, is standing 
Sandolphan, the angel, expanding 
His pinions in nebulous bars." 

"'She's painted already,' quoth I; 

1 Nay, nay/ 1 said the laughing Lisette, 
' Now none of your joking, but try, 
And paint a thorough coquette.' " 



SEMITONE AND TREMOR. 
And when their eyes flashed, 0, my beautiful eyes /' 



262 Murdoch's Elocution. 

"And all at once the old man burst in sobs; 
I have been to blame, — to blame, I have killed my son ! 
I have killed him, but I laved him, my dear son ! 
May God forgive me! I have been to blame. 
Kiss me, my children." 

"* They are lost,'' she muttered, * boat and crew, 
Lord forgive me, my words were true." 

"Pale, patient Robby's angel face, 
Still in his sleep bore suffering's trace. 
No, for a thousand crowns, not him." 



HIGH PITCH AND TREMOR AND QUICK MOVEMENT. 

"Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy 
Be heap'd like mine, and that thy skill be more 
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath 
This neighbor air, and let rich music's tongue 
Unfold the imagin'd happiness that both 
Receive in either by this dear encounter." 

— "Romeo and Juliet,'''' SHAKESPEARE. 

" O, joy! thou welcome stranger, twice three years 
I have not felt thy vital beam, but now 
It warms my veins, and plays about my heart ; 
A fiery instinct lifts me from the ground, 
And I could mount." , 

— "Revenge" Dr. Young. 

"Come; let us to the castle. — 
News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks are drown'd ; 
How do our old acquaintance of this isle ? — 
Honey, you shall be well desir'd in Cyprus, 
I have found great love among them. O, my sweet, 
I prattle out of fashion, and I dote 
In mine own comforts." 

— " Othello" Shakespeare. 



Use of Tremor in Expression, 263 



Exercise in Laughing. 

187. It is very difficult to acquire a perfect imitation of 
the natural laugh. The short u, in up, is the sound most 
easily produced by the abrupt function of the voice which 
forms the tittles. The student should, therefore, first prac- 
tice on this element in low pitch, keeping the tittles on a 
level line until he has acquired the natural action, thus : 
//////, //////, //////, huh, huh, huh. Then carry the tittles 
upward into a higher pitch, and the voice will naturally 
take on the more brilliant sounds : Ha, ha, ha, hih, hih, 
hih, hoh, hoh, hoh, etc. Each one of these sounds should 
be continued on a level line for a few tittles; they should 
then be carried up and down in every form of interval 
and wave. There should be no effort to give the sound 
of //, as it will naturally accompany the energy necessary 
to the creation of the tittles. 

Laughter rapidly exhausts the lungs, and necessitates a 
frequent and quick supply of air. In the language of 
mirth and gayety, laughter is often introduced between the 
words, as in the following: 

" < Play vie no tricks? said Lord Ronald, 
' For I am yours in word and deed.'' " 

The following exercise for practice of tremor, wave, and 
laughing exercise combined, is an admirable one for culti- 
vation of the voice. Practice hurrah with upward move- 
ment in three degrees of pitch, through wide intervals and 
double waves; and then again descending in radical pitch 
three degrees, with falling intervals and waves. Let 
hurrah and hurrah be practiced in the same manner. 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

Hurrah! Hurrah! 



Chapter XXII. 
Interrogative Intonation. 

1 88. The wider rising intervals of pitch, third, fifth, and 
octave, concrete and discrete, are adapted by an ordination 
of nature to the expression of inquiry or direct interroga- 
tion. Emphasis is effected by an occasional use of these 
intervals in the course of the melody, but we shall find 
that proper interrogation requires them on every syllable 
of a word, phrase, or sentence, in which case they form 
what may be called, when extending to any succession of 
syllables, the melody of interrogation. 

Interrogative intonation may be applied to a single word, 
a phrase, or a sentence. On a monosyllabic word, it must 
be expressed by the concrete form of interrogative intona- 
tion; on two syllables it may be effected by a rising dis- 
crete movement, and in the melody of interrogation, both 
interrogative intervals may be employed. Inquiry ex- 
pressed by the concrete interrogative interval is much more 
impressive than by the discrete, as the voice seems to seize 
hold of the question, as it were, and exert a greater energy 
upon it. The familiar question of simple inquiry, "Did 
you ? " will receive positive interrogative expression by ut- 
tering the two words on the extremes of a rising third, 
fifth, or octave, even though the concrete of each syllable 
passes through the interval of but a rising second. 

The strongest expression of inquiry is effected by the 
union of concrete and discrete interrogative intervals, thus: 
utter the noun con-dud as a direct inquiry, — conduct! as if 
(264) 



Interrogative Intonation. 265 

the words Did you say? were understood before it. In this 
case, the first syllable, being of extendible quantity, and 
bearing the accent, will rise through a slow concrete of a 
third, fifth, or octave, while the immutable and unaccented 
syllable duct will rise in radical pitch to the summit line of 
the vanish of con, and thence pass upward through its 
rapid concrete of perhaps a third. 

The melody of strong and energetic interrogation is well 
illustrated by the notation of the following interrogative 
sentences, in which the rapid concretes are indicated by 
the smaller symbol. 

Give Bru - tus a stat - ue with his an - ces - tors? 



jjjjjj tt 



^H / 



The sentence has been uttered as a command, " Give 
Brutus a statue with his ancestors" In which case, every 
syllable would take a direct downward interval. 

But the command creates in the mind of the hearer 
doubt and astonishment, which he expresses by repeating 
the words with a directly reversed form of intonation, 
every syllable rising through either a third, fifth, or octave, 
according to the degree of earnestness in the inquiry. 
Hamlet's astonished repetition of Horatio's words would 
carry the concretes through the same intervals as those of 
the notation: "The king, my father?" 

The following diagrams give two forms of cadence in 
the interrogative sentence. The first ends with unaccented 
syllables passing through the rapid concretes in a mono- 
tone; in the second, the last word is emphatic, and with 
the preceding syllable forms a tritone, the last constituent 
of which is a rising fifth. 

M.E.— 23. 



266 Murdoch's Elocution. 



He said you were in - com - pa - ra - ble ? 



nr ,it s-J-H 



t 



Give 


Fab 


- ius a 


tri - umph for his de - lay? 

J J J J / 


m 


^F 


m w 


J JJJ J * 



189. The familiar sentence, so often quoted, is here em- 
ployed for the purpose of noting the emphatic word, and 
what constitutes the emphasis itself, and also shows how 
this may be applied to the thorough interrogative sentence: 
Do you ride to town to-day •? In the first diagram, the 
general inquiry is expressed through a melody of rising 
thirds, every word bearing the same emphasis. If, how- 
ever, the question refers to riding or walking, ride would 
require to be made emphatic by being carried through a 
a rising concrete third, its radical falling below the current 
diatonic melody of the rest of the sentence, as in the 
second diagram; if the inquiry should be as to whether 
you or some other person rode to town, you would take the 
same movement; should the question be as to destination 
or time, town or to-day would require emphasis. 

Do you ride to town to - day? 



* ^ * 4 



Do 


you 


ride 


to 


town 


to 


(1 ay 


^ 


rf 




^ 


^ 






w 


W 


-^- 


w 


W 


■r 


-^ 



Interrogative Intonation. 267 

Questions requiring a keen and penetrating energy usu- 
ally add the intensifying effeet of stress to the interroga- 
tive intonation of their emphatic syllables. 

The application of final stress particularly enhances the 
interrogative energy of the slow concrete, while a radical 
stress increases this effect on the immutable syllables of a 
discrete interrogative. 

If a syllable of short quantity be emphatic in an inter- 
rogative sentence, it will descend radically to a third or 
more below the previous current melody, and rise through 
a rapid concrete with radical stress, the unemphatic sylla- 
bles continuing on the upper plane as before. 

190. As the rising third, fifth, and octave placed on 
every syllable of a sentence renders that sentence inter- 
rogative, the question naturally arises, must all sentences 
which have the interrogative structure be thus intonated? 
By no means. When every syllable of a question takes an 
interrogative interval, it is said to have the Tlwrough Inter- 
rogative Expression or Intonation. When the syllables of 
only a part of the question receive the interrogative inter- 
vals, and the remaining syllables pass through the plain 
declarative melody, it is said to have the Partial Interroga- 
tive Expression or Intonation. 

The intonation of those sentences having the interroga- 
tive form, but demanding the downward intonation, does 
not come properly under the head of interrogative expres- 
sion, though inseparable from a study of interrogative sen- 
tences. The Grammatical Structure of Questions, and the 
state of mind or purpose they are intended to convey, de- 
termine whether they shall receive the Thorough or Partial 
Expression, or the Dowmvard Intonation. Interrogative 
sentences appear under various forms of grammatical con- 
struction. The following are some leading rules concern- 
ing the two great conditions affecting the intonation of 
interrogative sentences : 



268 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 



Rule I. 

19 1. When an interrogative sentence has the assertive or 
declarative construction, it generally requires the thorough ex- 
pression. 

The declarative sentence, "He is gone," if repeated in 
the tone of an inquiry, is equivalent to saying, "Did you 
say he is gone ? " In fact, all assertive questions may be 
regarded as elliptical, having some such interrogative 
phrase, understood, to precede them. But as this interrog- 
ative phrase is omitted in the utterance, there is no means 
of distinguishing the interrogative from the declarative 
without a thorough interrogative intonation. 

A wide rising interval applied exclusively to one, or to 
an occasional, syllable, would express only an emphasis (as 
formally explained) upon the syllables so distinguished. 



Examples of Questions having the Assertive Form. 

The assertive or declaratory question is shown in the 
following passage taken from Shakespeare, — the scene be- 
tween Coriolanus and the servant of Aufidius : 

Servant. — Where dwellest thou? 
Coriolanus. — Under the canopy. 

Seivant (not comprehending, repeats interrogatively) Under the canopy ? 
Coriolanus. — -Ay. 

Servant. — Where 's that ? 
Coriolanus. — In the city of kites and crows. 

Seivant. — In the city of kites and crows? 

"You say a people is only sovereign when freed from the re- 
straints of morals and law?" 



Interrogative Intonation. 269 



14 Reach the mooring? Rather say, 
While rock stands and water runs, 
Not a ship will leave the bay!" 

Rule II. 

192. The common question, or that constructed by the re- 
versed position of the nominative and verb, usually take thorough 
expression. 

This form of question has been called direct from the 
fact that it may always be answered by yes or no, while 
those beginning with adverbs or pronouns have been called 
indirect because they can not be answered by yes or no. 



Examples of Common Questions taking Thorough Ex- 
pression. 

"Would you do homage in the most agreeable way? Would 
you render the most acceptable service ? Offer unto God thanks- 
giving." 

44 Have you forgot me ? " 

"Has some saint gone up to heaven?" 

We have an exception to the above rule in the very 
moderate form of question which becomes partial, — as in 
Hamlet's inquiry : 

*'Will you play upon this pipe?" 

"This pipe, will you play upon it?" This may bear 
the upward movement on the merely verbal form of inter- 
rogation, "Will you play?" and pipe may be emphasized 
by being made a feeble cadence. Should the interrogation 
be earnestly increased, it would demand the thorough in- 



270 Murdoch's Elocution. 

tonation. This same form of intonation may be used in 
the simple question: ''Can we have the flag?" 



Rule III. 

193. Adverbial or pronominal questions of a 7?wderate degree 
of earnestness require only the partial expression. 

In the adverbial construction, the uncertainty or doubt 
constituting the question does not generally extend to the 
whole of the sentence, certain facts being implied as ad- 
mitted or understood, the doubt existing only in their rela- 
tion to certain circumstances of agency, person, time, 
place, manner, etc. Thus, in the sentence, "Where has 
he gone?" the fact of his having gone is not the point of 
the question, but the direction indicated by the interrogative 
word where ? This word, then, will recive the interrogative 
expression, while the remainder of the sentence will pass 
through the diatonic melody. This expression is not 
always effected by a direct rising interval. 

The unequal direct wave may be used for the purpose 
of interrogation instead of the simple concrete, and is 
almost invariably employed for this purpose. In the inter- 
rogative words of adverbial and pronominal question in 
this use of the wave, the second or falling constituent is 
usually shorter than the rising, and marked by final 
pressure. Sometimes this intonation will extend to all the 
syllables of quantity in such a sentence, if uttered with 
impressiveness or gravity. 

When interrogative sentences contain members or clauses 
embracing an address, or an assertion, or expletives, or refer- 
ence to causes modifying the leading point of the question, 
yet not properly included in the interrogation, they require 
the partial expression only. 



Interrogative Intonation. 271 

Examples. 

Interrogative sentences containing an address: 

"Why with some little train, my lord of Buckingham?" 
"Where dwell you, pretty youth?" 

The question seems to end at train and you, and the 
remainder of the sentence should therefore have the purely 
diatonic melody and cadence. 

"Are you mad, you Malonius?" 

Here the interrogative ends with mad. 
Containing an assertion : 

"Why did you laugh then, when I said man delights not me?" 

" Is this the place that you spoke of?" 

" Talk to vie of rocks and shoals, me who took the soundings, tell 
On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell 
'Twixt the offing here and Greve, where the river disembogues ? " 

Containing an expletive : 

"What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, 
That he should weep for her?" 

Containing a cause : 

" What of his heart perceive you in his face, 
By any likelihood he showed to-day?" 

Rule IV. 

194. When two or more questions are connected by the dis- 
junctive conjunction or, and thus placed in apposition to each 



272 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

other; or, if a series of two or more questions be thus con- 
nected with others following, by the same conjunction, the first 
should have the thorough, and the second the partial expression. 



Examples. 

The question put by Richard to Buckingham is of this 
description : 

• ' But shall zve wear these glories for a day ? 
Or, shall they last and we rejoice in them?" 

"Shall me in your person crown the author of the public calamities, 
or shall we destroy him?" 

' ' Does God, after having made his creatures, take no further care of 
them ? Has he left them to blind fate or indirect chance ? Or does he 
always graciously preserve and keep and guide them?" 



Rule V. 

195. (1) When questions of a moderate degree succeed each 
other in series, each does not require the same extent in inter- 
rogative expression as it would when uttered singly. 

(2) Single interrogative sentences of great length and modo-ate 
temper also require only the partial expression. 

The reason of this rule is probably that the mind of the 
hearer, becoming so "in the humor of the question," as 
Dr. Rush puts it, that the latter is sufficiently indicated by 
the grammatical form. The use of partial intonation, in 
such cases, obviates the monotony of a succession of sim- 
ilar effects which would arise from a continuation of the 
thorough expression. 



Interrogative Intonation. 273 



Examples. 

Are you called forth from out a world of men, 
To slay the innocent? What is my offence? 
Where is the evidence that doth accuse me? 
What lawful quest have given their verdict up 
Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounced 
The bitter sentence of poor Clarence's death?" 



"How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes he here? 
Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with 
thee? And when shalt thou see him again? Answer me in one 
word." 



; Can splendid robes, or beds of down, 
Or costly robes that deck the fair, 

Can all the glories of a crown 

Give health, or soothe the brow of care?" 



1 What penny hath Rome borne, 
What men provided, what munition sen':. 
To underprop this action ? Is 't not I 
That undergo this action ? " 



In giving the preceding rules concerning the relations 
of the grammatical structure of questions to the form of 
intonation, the temper of the question has been assumed 
to be moderate, or, at most, earnest, indicating principally 
a state of simple inquiry. But inquiry, as formally stated, 
often co-exists with the passionative states of the mind. 
All the grammatical forms of a question may then be 
employed with the additional element of great surprise, in- 
dignation, anger, scorn, etc., and, as such, become pro- 
portionally vehement. 



274 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Vehemence of expression, under any grammatical struc- 
ture, and with a number of questions in conjunction or 
series, very generally requires the thorough intonation, every 
accented syllable thus becoming more or less emphatic, 
and passing through the intervals of the fifth, octave, and 
wider inverted waves, intensified by stress, aspiration, etc., 
according to the kind and degree of the passion. From 
this arises the following important rule : 



Rule VI. 

196. Where questions are very earnestly or very vehemently 
??iade, under any form of grammatical construction, or where 
there ai'e a number of questions, either in conjunction or series, 
they should generally receive the thorough expression. 



Examples. 

We have an example in the question of repulsive indig- 
nation in Cleopatra's reply to Caesar's friend : 

" Know, sir, that I 
Will not wait pensioned at your master's court ; 
Nor once be chastized with the sober eye 
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up, 
And show me to the shouting varlelry 
Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt 
Be gentle grave unto me!" 

Terrified surprise is expressed in the question of Lady 
Macbeth after the murder of Duncan : 

"Why did you bring the daggers from the place? 
They must lie there." 



Interrogative Intonation, 275 

In Hamlet's violent address to Laertes at the grave of 
Ophelia we have a series of vehement questions : 

"Show me what thou 'lit do: 
YVoo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself? 
Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile? 
I'll do 't. Dost thou come here to whine? 
To outface me with jumping in her grave?" 

This example has been given before to illustrate the use 
of the discrete intervals in dealing with short quantities. 
A striking contrast is here exhibited between the effect of 
the interrogative on the short quantities, weep, fight, fast, 
etc., and their rapid concretes, and the power of the voice 
on the long quantity tear, which would rise from a low 
plane on a slow concrete of a wide rising interval or 
wide inverted wave, intensified in earnestness by final 
stress. 

Thorough expression is effected by the use of some of 
the wider intervals, or their inverted waves, equal and un- 
equal, on every syllable of the melody, the extent of the 
interval or wave varying with the degree of earnestness or 
vehemence, and according to the same degree and the 
peculiar kind of mental excitement, combined with stress, 
aspiration, tremor, etc. 

The partial expression is effected by the use of occa- 
sional interrogative intervals or phrases in the course of 
the plain melody, usually of the third or fifth, or their un- 
equal direct or inverted waves, with the addition, in ex- 
treme earnestness, of final or median stress. (To the latter 
part of the rule an exception exists in monosyllabic ques- 
tions and short questions having the assertive form.) 
These, however, may receive the direct unequal wave with 
final pressure or median stress, which gives the dignity of 
interrogative expression. 



276 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Grammatical Questions Requiring the Downward In- 
tonation. 

197. A question may be connected in the mind with 
such a vehement desire for an answer, that the passionative 
state of command shall overbear the state of inquiry, and 
impart to the utterance the intonation peculiar to the for- 
mer, which we have learned is positively downward. In 
such cases, the interrogative character of the question is 
indicated only by the grammatical construction, while the 
intonation expresses a demand for a reply. This is called 
the imperative question, and is illustrated in the following 
passage from ' ' Macbeth : " 

Witches. — Seek to know no more. 
Macbeth. — I will be satisfied : deny me this, 

And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know 
Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this ? 

Macbeth's mental condition of angry command is exhib- 
ited in the imperative ''Let me know," and the same im- 
perative force overrules the ordinary expression of inquiry 
which would accompany such questions, driving the voice 
through the down-sweeping movements of command on all 
the syllables of quantity. The imperative question is 
often exhibited in the angry inquiry of a superior to an 
obdurate culprit, concerning his offense ; as, 

Why did you do it ? Where have you been ? What have you 
been doing ? Who says this? 

Grammatical questions may be employed as a figure of 
speech to convey a positive state of mind, such as convic- 
tion or belief in the negative of the point of inquiry. In 
such questions, there is a positive expectation in the mind 
of the interrogator of acquiescence in this conviction on 



Interrogative Intonation. 277 

the part of the person or persons addressed, and this assur- 
ance, exactly the reverse of the doubt of inquiry, is natur- 
ally expressed by the use of the downward intonation. In 
such questions there is no real inquiry, although made in 
the grammatical form; but by them the hearer is much 
more likely to be led, through the appeal to his opinion, to 
an acquiescence in the negative of the question, than if 
the speaker's belief in it had been made in the declarative 
form. Questions coming under this head may be called 
appealing questions, as an appeal is always made with a 
confident expectation of a favorable decision, and is, there- 
fore, positive or confident in its expression, though defer- 
ential or non-assertive in its verbal form. We have an 
example of such a question in Brutus's appeal to the gods 
in the following lines from "Julius Ccesar:" 

"Judge me, you gods! Wrong I mine enemies? 
And, if not so, hozu should I wrong my brother?" 

The questions marked should take either wide downward 
concretes, or if desiring to express less of confidence in 
the decision, the unequal direct waves of a rising third and 
falling fifth, as a sort of compromise between deference 
and assurance, the first expressing some doubt, and the 
second certainty. We have a similar instance of the ap- 
pealing question in Antony's oration over Caesar : 

" He hath brought many captives home to Rome, 
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill : 
Did this in- Qesar seem ambitious ?" 



Also : 



You all did see, that on the Lupercal 

I thrice presented him a kingly crown, 

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?' 1 '' 



278 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

The desire on the part of Antony being to establish the 
conviction that Caesar was ?iot ambitious. 

These questions may be intonated in either of the ways 
described in the preceding instance. .The form of the un- 
equal wave, for obvious reasons, is more persuasive in its 
character than the direct downward movements. 

The question of the language quoted may be given with 
the interrogative intonation of doubt, or with the rising in- 
terrogation of the wide inverted wave, but neither of these 
would effect the intended result of the wily orator, or 
follow the evident intent of the author in so placing them. 

Negative questions, which imply an appeal for confirma- 
tion of a belief in the reverse of the point of inquiry, or 
in the affirmation of the question, belong properly in this 
connection. These, however, can not be strictly called 
figurative questions, thus: "Is it not too bad!" "Is it 
not monstrous ! " meaning in both cases that it is so. 
From the preceding we have the following rule : 

Rule. 

198. All imperative questions, and all figurative questions, 
or questions of appeal, require the downward intonation 
throughout, either in the form of the direct downward con- 
cretes, or of the direct unequal waves, having second constitu- 
ent longer than first, usually with final, thorough, or median 
stress. 

Examples for Practice in Questions Demanding 
Downward Intonation. 

imperative. 

"Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn?" 

Douglas's haughty, imperative speech, loses much of its 
force and dignity if given with the rising movements of 



Interrogative Intonation. 279 

the voice. The positive state of his mind overrules the 
interrogative character of the sentence, and demands the 
down sweep of the voice, combined with high pitch, in- 
crease of force, and final stress. 

"And dar'st thou, then, 
To beard the lion in his den, 
The Douglas in his hall? 
And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go? 
No! by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no!" 

"Soars thy presumption then so high, 
Because a wretched kern ye slew, 
Homage to name to Roderick Dhu ? " 

APPEALING QUESTONS. 

" Is this a time to be gloomy and sad, 
When our mother nature laughs around ? 
When even the deep blue heavens look glad, 
And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground ? " 

" But can we believe that a thinking being, which is in per- 
petual progress of improvement, and traveling on from perfection 
to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of its 
Creator, and made a few discoveries of His infinite goodness, wis- 
dom, and power, must perish at her first setting out, and in the very 
beginning of her inquiries ? " 

"I put it to your oaths: do you think that a blessing of that 
kind — that a victory, obtained by justice over bigotry and oppres- 
sion, should have a stigma cast upon it by an ignominious sentence 
upon men bold and honest enough to propose that measure?" 



NEGATIVE QUESTIONS. 

Art thou a friend to Roderick?' 'No.' 

Thou darst not call thyself a foe ? ' 

I dare, to him and all the band 

He brings to aid his murderous hand.' 



280 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Have I not hideous death -within my view, 

Retaining but a quantity of life, 

Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax 

Resolveth from his figure '■ gainst the fire ? 

What in the world should make me now deceive, 

Since I must lose the use of all deceit? 

Why should I then be false ; since it is true 

That I must die here, and live hence by truth ? " 

" Ay, his breast: 
So says the bond; — doth it not, noble judge? 
Nearest his heart, those are the very words." 

"Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile, 
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 
Than that of painted pomp ? Are not these woods 
More free f^om peril than the envious court ? ' ' 



Chapter XXIII. 
Expressive Melody ; Sentential Pitch ; Transition in Pitch. 

199. All movements of pitch which carry the voice 
either concretely or discretely beyond the plain second, 
concrete and radical, of the diatonic melody of passionless 
thought, form what are called exp?'essive or emphatic phrases. 
These may be occasional, or they may prevail throughout 
a passage or sentence, and extend the cadence at the close 
either into the wider intervals or waves. But the voice 
is constantly recurring to the plain diatonic melody on 
phrases or passages of less eagerness or excitement, and 
on the unaccented syllables and unemphatic words, for it is 
this melody against which the wider and more vivid into- 
nations are thrown into relief. 

The following notated passage from "Paradise Lost," 
descriptive of Abdiel's encounter with Satan, furnishes an 
example of the introduction of the wider intervals into the 
diatonic current for the purpose of emphasis or expression. 
The language is notated to express the energy of the action 
it describes, hence the frequent use of the alternate phrase. 



So 


say 


- ing, a 


no - 


ble 


stroke he 


nft 


• ed 


high, 


-4- 


* 


A d 


rf 


A 


* * 


-%r 


"^T 




\. 9 











Which hung not, 


but 


so 


swift 


with tem - 


pest 


fell 


4 % 4 


*r 


* 


* 


^ 


% 


* 


m ^v ^ 



M. E.-24. (2S1) 



2S2 



Murdoch 's Elocution. 



On the 


proud crest 


of 


Sa - 


tan, 


that 


no 


sight, 


^ * 


*~\ -T 


^r 


«t 




-A 


tf 


J 


m ww ^ w v 



Nor 


mo - 


tion 


of 


swift thought, less 


could his 


shield, 


gk 


^ 






* * \ 


* ^ 


^^ 





Such ru - in in - ter - cept. 



h * J - N ^ * ^ = 



Wider intervals on the emphatic words may be em- 
ployed according to the taste and the conception of the 
reader as to the requisite degree of expressive energy. 

200. The wider intervals, especially the fifth and octave, 
with their waves, and the semitone, are the most striking 
constituents of the voice, and are employed to express 
only the most intensified and energetic states of the mind ; 
these states being the exception, instead of the rule, the 
remarkable effect of their signs, unduly repeated, produce 
a monotony at once unnatural and offensive to the ear. 
They should not be introduced, therefore, into the current 
of speech, without just grounds in the character of the lan- 
guage. "The ear," says Rush, "has its green as well as 
the eye," and, therefore, rests upon and returns with 
pleasure to the plain diatonic utterance of language. 

" He who is constantly dealing out his thirds, fifths, octaves, 
and semitones," adds Rush, "allows no repose to the ear, and 
when real cause for expression comes, both the ear and mind are 
unable to perceive their real meaning; while upon the vocal level, 
so to speak, of the diatonic ground, the expressive intervals properly 
employed come with all the pleasing and natural effect of variety 
and contrast." 



Sentential Pitch. 283 

Exaggeration of feeling which elevates small matters to 
emphatic importance, often leads, in the ordinary uses of 
the voice, to an indiscriminating employment of its constit- 
uents of thought and expression. 

The wider intonations naturally combine, for the full 
sum of expressive effect, with appropriate degrees and 
varieties of force, time, and quality. 

The simple diatonic melody which links the expressive 
intonations together, although it can not be said to have 
what has been strictly termed expression in itself, as a 
mode of pitch will always receive a general coloring of ex- 
pression by adopting the prevailing quality, time, and force 
(though in a lesser degree) of the expressive parts of the 
melody, thus receiving a shade of the color of expression 
given to any succession of language by the expressive ele- 
ments which enter into its utterance. 

In fine, the current diatonic melody of speech is the 
golden thread of utterance, upon which are hung the glit- 
tering gems of the imagination, the golden beads of feel- 
ing, or the pearls of energized truth, as expressed in the 
higher intervals and waves and their attendant vocal ele- 
ments. 

The melody of language does not always flow by an un- 
interrupted succession of phrases between periods, but 
frequently the intensity of excitement attending passion- 
ative utterance causes an exhaustion of breath; the subse- 
quent act of refilling the lungs produces the longer pauses 
of what is termed the Broken Melody, and exists only in 
language of the most passionative character. 



Sentential Pitch. 

201. In our study of the expressive or significant char- 
acter of pitch, the attention has been thus far chiefly 



284 Murdoch's Elocution. 

directed to the individual concretes and their relation to 
each other in the successions of melody. 

But all melody derives a certain expression over and 
above that arising from its individual constituents of con- 
crete and discrete intervals, from its general pitch, or that 
particular range of the compass through which those inter- 
vals are varied. This may he called the Sentential Pitch, 
as describing the general position in the scale of whole 
sentences or groups of words. 

When the character of the thought, sentiment or passion 
continues the same, there will be a prevailing note or de- 
gree of the scale, above and below which the radicals of 
the melody will rise or fall, and to which they will fre- 
quently return, the latter thus progressing within a certain 
range or limit. * The voice, however, following the varia- 
tions of thought and passion, is continually changing the 
melody from one range of pitch to another. This change 
is called Transition. 

Transition in Pitch. 

202. Transitions are generally made for one of the three 
causes following : 

1. To mark a change in the sentiment or passion. 

2. To mark a change in the train of thought, and 

3. To mark an introduced or parenthetical idea. 
Transition from one range of pitch to another may be 

made proximately through the entire compass, or it may be 
made from one part of the scale to another, more remote, 
by a discrete change. Wide and sudden transitions should 
only mark the language of extreme passion, in which the 



*This prevailing note has some similarity to the key-note of 
music, but not sufficient to warrant the employment of the term 
key in speech. 



Transition in Pitch. 285 

states of mind are apt to pass suddenly from one extreme 
to another; or in that of facetious humor, expressive of 
the quaint contrasts of widely differing thoughts or impres- 
sions. 

The effect of wide transitions quickly made is always 
that of a sudden surprise or shock to the hearer. They 
become, therefore, one of the most striking elements of 
vocal effect, and are especially adapted to the strongest 
dramatic expression. Lesser transitions in pitch produce 
the effect of a change sufficient to indicate the mental tran- 
sition from one state to another more nearly related, and 
also to afford an agreeable variety by avoiding the mo- 
notony of a continuation of the same sentential pitch. 

The following notation furnishes an example of the less 
striking effect of a temperate and moderate transition, as 
well as of the adaptation of the general pitch to the senti- 
ment to be expressed. If the notation were intended to 
indicate the full expression of the passage, it would require 
frequent waves to express the long quantities, but it is no- 
tated simply to illustrate the point under consideration of 
transition and sentential pitch. 

The figures marking the sentences correspond with those 
at the side of the staff, and indicate the transition in 
pitch : 

4 The moon her - self is lost in heav'n ; 6 but thou art for- 

9 



f*if**** ' r¥ ^ - 



ev - er the same, 8 re -joi - cing in the brightness of thy course. 



* mf tf * tf 


+r-*^ 


* 


-4- 


¥ 


-V^^ 


4 









286 Murdoch's Elocution. 



2 When the world is dark with tempests, 4 when thunders roll, 



y 



^•^ 



? * « * j ^tL 



and lightnings fly, 6 thou look'st in thy beau - ty from the cloud 

* * * * * * « r •' Ig 



* * ¥ * 



and laugh'st at the storm. 2 But to Os-sian thou look'st in vain. 



+ * ^ ¥ «r^ «r 



203. Of the wide and sudden transitions of passionative 
expression, the following lines from the potion scene of 
"Romeo and Juliet'' 1 furnish a striking example: 

"O! if I wake, shall I not be distraught, 
Environed with all these hideous fears? 
And madly play with my forefathers' joints? 
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud ? 
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone, 
As with a club, clash out my desperate brains? 
O, look ! methinks I see my cousin's ghost 
Seeking out Romeo." 

After concluding the terrible picture of the horrors of 
the tomb on the words "dash out my desperate brains," 
the disordered imagination of Juliet suddenly seems to see 
the ghost of Tybalt. From a wide falling interval, or 
extended form of the feeble cadence on brains, the voice, 
following the sudden emotion of fright and terror, makes 
an upward transition or leap of a full fifth or octave on O, 



Transition in Pitch. 287 

look, and the melody continues at or near that height to the 
end of the sentence. 

An example of a striking transition to a lower pitch is 
exhibited in the following passage from "Richelieu" em- 
bodying at once the prelate's solemn warning and bold 
defiance of Baradas in placing Julie under the protection 
of the church : 



"Around her form I draw 
The awful circle of our solemn church! 
Set but a foot within that holy ground, 
And on thy head — yea, though it wore a crown- 
I launch the curse of Rome ! " 



Here the words solemn church should be read in a low 
pitch, the solemnity increased by prevailing monotone. 
From this the voice rises to a higher range in the bold and 
ringing expression of the defiance hurled, as it were, in 
the name of the church, continuing at this height until the 
word curse: this should be struck at the highest discrete 
pitch, and descends a fifth concretely, with aspirated 
orotund quality and concentrated force; the voice falls dis- 
cretely at least a fifth on the words of Rome, the latter 
being given with a wave and the median swell. 

204. The effect of transition in pitch is generally height- 
ened by a change, also, in : 

1. The Force. 

2. The Rate of Utterance. 

3. The Phrases of Melody. 

A temperate transition effected by these several agencies 
should always mark those parts of reading or discourse 
where a reader enters on a new train of thought. Such 
parts are generally divided to the eye by paragraphs, and 
should be as clearly marked to the ear. The voice indi- 
cates either a change in the subject or its treatment. 



288 Murdoch's Elocution. 

The change should generally be to a lower pitch, unless 
the expression demands a higher, or that of the preceding 
paragraph terminates very low. This rule for transition at 
a fresh train of ideas is most applicable to narrative, de- 
scriptive, or less impassioned reading, and to public speak- 
ing, and is to avoid the monotony so common to both of 
keeping the voice on one continuous line. A reader or 
speaker should, in ordinary speaking or reading, pitch the 
voice a little lower than the middle note in starting out. 

205. In the following example, the whole of the first 
section should be read with about the same pitch, quality, 
and rate as that used in conversation, but with more force. 
The second section should begin about a radical third 
lower, with monotone and a slower movement. Upon the 
third line, the voice should rise somewhat higher in pitch, 
with some increase of rate; while upon the fourth, it 
should be still louder, higher, and more rapid, especially 
upon the last four lines. The voice should again fall in 
pitch upon the commencement of the next section, and 
should be slow in movement, with a prevalence of mono- 
tone. 

"At midnight, in his guarded tent, 
The Turk was dreaming of the hour 
When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, 
Should tremble at his power; 
In dreams, thro' camp and court, he bore 
The trophies of a conqueror ; 
In dreams his song of triumph heard ; 
Then wore his monarch's signet ring, 
Then pressed that monarch's throne — a king ; 
As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, 
As Eden's garden bird. 

"An hour passed on. — The Turk awoke; 
That bright dream was his last ; 
He woke — to hear the sentry's shriek, 
'To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!' 



Transition in Pitch, 289 

He woke to die 'midst flame and smoke, 
And shout and groan, and sabre stroke, 
And death shots falling thick and fast 
As lightnings from the mountain cloud : 
And heard, with voice as trumpet loud, 
Bozzaris cheer his band : 
' Strike — till the last armed foe expires, 
Strike — for your altars and your fires, 
Strike — for the green graves of your sires, 
God — and your native land ! ' 

"They fought — like brave men, long and well, 
They piled that ground with Moslem slain, 
They conquered — but Bozzaris fell, 
Bleeding at every vein." 

— "Marco Bozzaris,'' Halleck. 

206. Lastly, transition in pitch marks the difference be- 
tween the parenthetical idea and the current thought it 
interrupts. 

The parenthesis, in introduced clauses, always represents 
what may be termed a cross-current of thought, and as such 
must be distinguished vocally from the main current. 
Whether the parenthetical clause shall be raised or de- 
pressed, however, depends entirely upon the pitch of the 
main sentence, for if this, from the nature of the senti- 
ment, be in low pitch, the parenthesis should be in a 
higher, and vice versa, the necessary contrast being most 
naturally effected in this way. It should, moreover, gener- 
ally terminate with the same melodic movement as that 
marking the close of the last word preceding it, in order 
to preserve the connection on the ear between the parts of 
the sentence it separates. 

The parenthesis should always be marked by a lighter 
force and a quicker movement, as well as a change in 
pitch, never taking as much expression as the current into 
which it breaks. It should be put in lighter colors, as it 
were, as incidental only to the main expression. 

M. E.— 25. 



290 Murdoch's Elocution. 

207. In addition, therefore, to the elementary drills 
already given for the purpose of developing the voice to 
its fullest extent in pitch, the following exercise should be 
practiced. 

Let the lines here given be begun upon the lowest pitch, 
and with energetic force be carried gradually upward, 
through successive ranges, until the voice has traversed its 
entire compass (not running into falsetto). Then let a 
descent be made in the same manner to the lowest pitch 
again — an earnest degree of force being sustained through- 
out. This should be frequently repeated upon the words 
here given, and upon others the student may himself select 
for the purpose. This manner of reading is, of course, to 
be without reference to the sense or sentiment, but simply 
as an exercise of the voice through the various ranges of 
its compass : 

"And here his course the chieftain staid, 
Threw down his target and his plaid, 
And to the lowland warrior said : — 
* Bold Saxon ! to his promise just, 
Vich-Alpine has discharged his trust. 
This murderous chief, this ruthless man, 
This head of a rebellious clan, 
Hath led thee safe through watch and ward, 
Far past Clan-Alpine's outmost guard. 
Now, man to man, and steel to steel, 
A chieftain's vengeance thou shalt feel. 
See here, all vantageless I stand, 
Arm'd, like thyself, with single brand: 
For this is Coilantogle ford, 
And thou must keep thee with thy sword.'" 

208. To be able to make transitions from one pitch to 
another in speaking, particularly to another widely re- 
moved, is one of the most difficult points of execution in 
the artistic use of the speaking voice, and one of the most 



Trans iliou in Speech. 291 

important, as it constitutes the first requisite in marking 
the ever-succeeding changes from one state of thought or 
passion to another. 

In addition to examples for practice of the uses of tran- 
sition in expression here given, transitions in pitch should 
be practiced in every degree upon successions of the vowel 
elements and successions of numerals. See ^| 163. Tran- 
sitions in pitch may be taught in class-reading by appro- 
priating to each of the class certain parts of any passage 
containing rapid and discursive dialogue between different 
speakers, in which the pitch of the sentence is continually 
changing as it passes from one to the other. 

Examples of Transition in Pitch. 

In the following stanza, the last couplet falls below the 
middle pitch, to mark the prophetic character of the 
thought : 

"They dropped their lines in the lazy tide 

Drawing np haddock and mottled cod ; 

They saw not the shadow that walked beside, 

They heard not the feet with silence shod." 

"With that he cried, and beat his breast; 

For lo ! along the river's bed 
A mighty eygre reared his crest, 

And up the Lindis raging sped. 
It swept with thunderous noises loud, 
Shaped like a curling snow-white cloud, 
Or like a demon in a shroud.'''' 

"Round purple peaks 
It sails, and seeks 
Blue inlets, and their crystal creeks, 
Where high rocks thrcnv, 
Through deeps below, 
A duplicated golden glow.'''' 



292 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

The stanza from "The Battle of Waterloo'''' opens with 
high pitch, aspirated quality. The answer is made in 
lower pitch, and clear, full quality of voice, with loud con- 
crete; this is continued to sixth line, when the voice is 
lifted on hark, and falls on "that heavy sound breaks i?i once 
more;'''' " As if the clouds" etc., rises slightly in pitch. 

"Did ye not hear it? — No; 'twas but the wind, 
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street : 
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; 
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet 
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet — 
But, hark! — that heavy sound breaks in once more, 
As if the clouds its echo would repeat ; 
And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before ! 
Arm ! Arm ! It is ! — it is ! — the cannon's opening roar ! " 



Sudden Transition. 

The following passage from Collins's " Ode " will afford 
a fine example of variation. In passing from the tone of 
melancholy to that of cheerfulness, it will be observed 
that the voice changes from a faint utterance, low note, 
and slow rate, to a strain which is comparatively forcible, 
high, and rapid. 

MELANCHOLY. 

"Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole, 
Or, o'er some haunted stream, with fond delay, 
(Round an holy calm diffusing, 
Love of peace and lonely musing,) 
In hollow murmurs died away." 



CHEERFULNESS. 

But, O! how altered was its sprightlier tone, 
When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, 



Transition in Pitch. 293 

Her bow across her shoulder Hung, 

Her buskins gem'd with morning dew, 

Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thickets rung! — 

The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known* 

"Did you know the burning of his bosom! — (but J speak un- 
thinkingly, perhaps, what my delicacy should not have whispered, even 
in the ear of friendship)." 

"Could we but prevail on my father to think thus! — (alas, his 
mind is not formed for contracting into that narrow sphere which his 
fortune has naio marked out for him)." 

In the following, the poetic narrative is delivered in mid- 
dle pitch, full natural quality, changing to orotund at the 
sixth line. The sudden transition occurs at Vw fired, 
where we have fine instance of climax and accelerated 
movement. * 

"The vaults beneath the mosaic stone 
Contain'd the dead of ages gone; 



Here, throughout the siege, had been 
The Christians' chiefest magazine; 
To these a late form'd train now led, 
Minotti's last and stern resource 
Against the foe's o'erwhelming force. 

'The foe came on, and few remain 
To strive, and those must strive in vain : 

To the high altar on they go ; 

And round the sacred table glow 

Twelve lofty lamps, in splendid row, 

From the purest metal cast ; 

A spoil — the richest, and the last. 

So near they came, the nearest stretch'd 

To grasp the spoil he almost reach'd, — 



294 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

When old Minotti's hand 

Touch'd with the torch the train — 

Tis fired ! 

Spire, vaults, the shrine, the spoil, the slain, 

The turban' d victors, the Christian band, 

All that of living or dead remain, 

HurPd on high with the shivered fane, 

In one wild roar expired!'" 



General Divisions of Pitch. 

209. The general divisions of pitch are low, very low, 
high, very high, and middle or medium. These, it is under- 
stood, are only relative, and do not mark any positive 
division of the scale. The great mistake in popular in- 
struction is to treat pitch as sentential only, *n which case 
the individual significance or expressive effect of syllablic 
intonation is overlooked, and only the general effect of 
pitch as an agent of expression observed. 

A knowledge of this, however, is of great importance to 
the student in the expression of what is called the ''deeper 
feelings," such as awe, horror, despair, deep grief, rage, 
scorn, fear, melancholy, etc. In the utterance of very 
serious or impressive thoughts, the voice will adopt the 
lower ranges of pitch, the degree of gravity from which it 
will rise and fall being determined by the degree of depth 
or intensity in the feeling. 

In the expression of the more elevated, animating, gay, 
and joyous states of mind, such ay hope, cheerfulness, mirth, 
joy, ecstasy, raillery, facetiousness, etc. , the voice will traverse 
the upper ranges of its compass in their appropriate de- 
grees of gradation; while in states of sudden or extreme 
excitement, such as alarm, acute grief or pain, it will be 
carried into the highest, as in the shrieking and screaming 
utterance of the falsetto. 



General Divisions of Pitch. 295 

In ordinary or unimpassioned language, such as betokens 
a quiet state of mind, and is heard in unexcited conversa- 
tion or narrative, or in earnest, didactic discourse, the 
melody naturally assumes the middle ranges of pitch, ap- 
proaching, according to the gradations of feeling, either to 
the lower or upper ranges. In the ever varying states of 
the mind, there will be continued transitions from the one 
to the other, but the prevailing thought or feeling of a 
group of words, or of a sentence, may be said to deter- 
mine their general sentential pitch. In grave or solemn 
language, tending to the lowest ranges of pitch, the melody 
is confined chiefly to the phrases of the monotone, inter- 
spersed with the rising or falling ditone, the quantity long 
and movement slow.* 

In language of a lighter character, mirthful, facetious, or 
joyous, where the melody traverses the upper ranges of 
pitch, the alternate phrase prevails, and if of a highly ani- 
mated and glowing character, a rising and falling tritone 
may be occasionally employed. 

High Pitch. 

"Quick brightening like lightning — it tore me along, 
Down, down, till the gush of a torrent, at play 
In the rocks of its wilderness, caught me — and strong 
As the wings of an eagle, it whirl'd me away." 

Low Pitch, f 

'• Below, at the foot of that precipice drear, 

Spread the gloomy, and purple, and pathless Obscure ! 
A silence of Horror that slept on the ear, 

That the eye more appall'd might the Horror endure!" 



* Range refers to the compass — not a particular pitch, 
t These examples are both from Schiller's "Diver,"''' translated by 
Bulwer. 



296 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Middle Pitch. 

light conversational style. — Natural Quality. Light 
Radical Stress. Quick Movement. Delicate Force. 

The different sentiments require change in pitch in sen- 
tential form. 

"Words are, as Wordsworth has happily said, 'the incarnation 
of thought.' Indeed, words, in themselves, are nothing more than 
' mouthfuls of spoken wind,' the sons and daughters of the tongue 
and lungs. They are hardened into consistency by a process of 
pens, ink, and paper. In this state they take form. But naturally 
they are immaterial substances, like thoughts. The sculptor em- 
bodies an idea in marble, and we discriminate between the essence 
and the form. Why should we not also distinguish between a word 
printed or written, and a word spoken or conceived, — between the 
body and the soul of an expulsion of air? Words, in truth, are 
entities, real existences, immortal beings; and, though I would not 
go the whole length of Haslitt, in saying that they are the only 
things that live forever, I would indicate their title to a claim in 
the eternities of this world, and defend them from the cavils of 
presumption and ignorance. 

" Leaving, however, these lofty notions of words, and coming 
down to the every-day world of books and men, we observe many 
queer developments of the cozenage of language. The most fluent 
men seem the most influential. All classes seem to depend upon 
words. Principles are nothing in comparison with speech. A poli- 
tician is accused of corruption, inconsistency, and loving number 
one more than number ten thousand. Straightway he floods the 
country with words, and is honorably acquitted. A gentleman of 
far reaching and purse reaching intelligence concocts twenty millions 
of pills, and "works" them off to agents, and, in the end, trans- 
fers the whole from his laboratory to the stomachs of an injured 
and oppressed people, by means of — words. An author wishes to be 
sublime, but has no fire in him, to give sparkle and heat to his 
compositions. His ideas are milk-and-water logged, feeble, com- 



Middle Pitch. 297 



monplace, nerveless, witless, and soulless; or his thoughts are bal- 
lasted with lead instead of being winged with inspiration. ' What 
shall 1 do?' he eries, in the most plaintive terms of aspiring 
stupidity. Poor poetaster! do not despair ! take to thy dietionary, — 
drench thy thin blood with gin, — learn the power of words. Pile 
the Ossa of Rant on the Pelion of Hyperbole, and thy small fraction 
of the Trite shall be exalted to the heights of the Sublime, and the 
admiring gaze of many people shall be fixed upon it, and the coin 
shall jingle in thy pocket, and thou shralt be denominated Great! 
Put if thy poor pate be incapable of the daring, even in expression, 
then grope dubiously in the dismal swamps of verbiage, and let thy 
mind's fingers feel after spungy and dropsical words, out of which 
little sense can be squeezed, and arrange the oozy epithets and un- 
substantial substantives into lines, and out of the very depths of 
Bathos thou shalt arise a sort of mud-Venus, and men shall mis- 
take thee for her that rose from the sea, and the coin shall still 
clink in thy fob, and thou shalt be called Beautiful! Such is the 
omnipotence of words! They can exalt the little; they can depress 
the high ; a ponderous polysyllable will break the chain of an 
argument, or crack the pate of a thought, as a mace or a battle-ax 
could split the crown of a soldier in the elder time." 

— "Words," Whipple. 



animated style. — Natural Quality. Light Radical. Waves. 
Moderate. Brisk Movement. 

"Some words on Language may be well applied, 
And take them kindly, though they touch your pride; 
Words lead to things; a scale is more precise, — 
Coarse speech, bad grammar, swearing, drinking, vice. 
Our cold Northeaster's icy fetter clips 
The native freedom of the Saxon lips; 
See the brown peasant of the plastic South, 
How all his passions play about his mouth ! 
With us, the feature that transmits the soul, 
A frozen, passive, palsied breathing-hole. 
The crampy shackles of the ploughboy's walk 
Tie the small muscles when he strives to talk; 
Not all the pumice of the polished town 



298 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

Can smooth this roughness of the barnyard down ; 

Rich, honor'd, titled, he betrays his race 

By this one mark, — he 's awkward in the face ; — 

Nature's rude impress, long before he knew 

The sunny street that holds the sifted few. 

It can't be helped, though, if we 're taken young, 

We gain some freedom of the lips and tongue; 

But school and college often try in vain 

To break the padlock of our boyhood's chain : 

One stubborn word will prove this axiom true, — 

No quondam rustic can enunciate view. 

A few brief stanzas may be well employed 

To speak of errors we can all avoid. 

" Learning condemns beyond the reach of hope 
The careless lips that speak of soap for soap ; 
Her edict exiles from her fair abode 
The clownish voice that utters road for road : 
Less stern to him who calls his coat a coat, 
And steers his boat, believing it a boat, 
She pardoned one, our classic city's boast, 
Who said at Cambridge, m6st instead of most, 
But knit her brows and stamped her angry foot 
To hear a Teacher call a root a root. 

" Once more ; speak clearly, if you speak at all ; 
Carve every word before you let it fall ; 
Don't, like a lecturer or dramatic star, 
Try over-hard to roll the British R ; 
Do put your accents in the proper spot; 
Don't, — let me beg you, — don't say 'How?' for What?' 
And, when you stick on conversation's burrs, 
Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs." 

— "Language," O. W. Holmes. 

serious style. — Natural Quality. Light Radical Stress. 
Moderate Force and Movement. Diatonic Melody, broken 
by occasional Intervals of the Thii'd and Waves of the Second. 

" For rising to eminence in any intellectual pursuit, there is not 
a rule of more essential importance than that of doing one thing at 



Ge?ieral Divisions of Pitch. 299 

a time; avoiding distracting and desultory occupations, and keeping 
a leading object habitually before the mind, as one in which it can 
at all times find an interesting resource when necessary avocations 
allow the thoughts to recur to it. If, along with this habit, there 
be cultivated the practice of constantly writing such views as arise, 
we perhaps describe that state of mental discipline by which talents 
of a very moderate order may be applied in a conspicuous and useful 
manner to any subject to which they are devoted. Such writing 
need not be made at first with any great attention to method, but 
merely put aside for future consideration, and in this manner the 
different departments of a subject will develop and arrange them- 
selves as they advance, in a manner equally pleasing and won- 
derful." 

— " Qualities of a Well Regulated Mind,'" Abercrombie. 



High Pitch. 

gay style. — Expulsive Orotund. Impassioned Force. Me- 
dian Stress. 

"Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song! 
And let the young lambs bound 
As to the tabor's sound ! 
We in thought will join your throng, 
Ye that pipe and ye that play, 
Ye that through your hearts to-day 
Feel the gladness of the May ! 

What though the radiance which was once so bright 
Be now forever taken from my sight, 
Though nothing can bring back the hour 
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; 
We will grieve not, rather find 
Strength in what remains behind ; 
In the primal sympathy 
Which having been must ever be ; 
In the soothing thoughts that spring 
Out of human suffering; 
In the faith that looks through death, 
In years that bring the philosophic mind." 

— "Intimations of Immortality," WoRDSWORTH. 



300 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Very High Pitch. 

song of exultation. — Expulsive Orotund. Impassioned 
Force. Quick Time. Media?i Stress. 

"Sing the bridal of nations! with chorals of love, 
Sing out the war vulture and sing in the dove, 
Till the hearts of the peoples keep time in accord, 
And the voice of the world is the voice of the Lord ! 

Clasp hands of the nations 

In strong gratulations : 
The dark night is ending and dawn has begun ; 
Rise, hope of the ages, arise like the sun, 
All speech flow to music, all hearts beat as one ! " 

— " Christmas Carmen" Whittier. 

joyous movement. — Effusive Orotund. Quick Time. Im- 
passioned Force. Median Stress. 

"O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise 
to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with 
thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For 
the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 

"In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of 
the hills is his also. 

"The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry 
land. O come, let us worship and bow down : let us kneel before 
the Lord our maker. For he is our God ; and we are the people of 
his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." 



The Psalms. 



Low Pitch. 



Effusive Orotund. Median Stress. Slow Movement. Light 

Force. 

" O sleep, O gentle sleep, 
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, 
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, 
And steep my senses in forgetfulness ? 



General Divisions of Pitch. 301 

Why rather, Bleep, best thou in smoky cribs, 

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, 

And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber; 

Than in the perfumed chambers of the great, 

Under the canopies of costly state, 

And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody? 

O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile, 

In loathsome beds; and leav'st the kingly couch, 

A watch-case, or a common 'larum bell? 

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast 

Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains 

In cradle of the rude imperious surge, 

And in the visitation of the winds, 

Who take the ruffian billows by the top, 

Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them 

With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds, 

That, with the hurly, death itself awakes? 

Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose 

To the wet sea-boy, in an hour so rude ; 

And, in the calmest and most stillest night, 

W'ith all appliances and means to boot, 

Deny it to a king? " 

— "Sleep," Shakespeare. 

Very Low Pitch. 

The vivid impression made upon Clarence's mind by his 
dream recalls the terror of the time, sinking the voice 
in pitch, which becomes aspirated, pectoral in quality, and 
causing a labored action of the organs. 

"My dream was lengthened after life: 
O, then began the tempest to my soul ! — 



With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends 
Environed me, and howled in mine ears 
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise 
I trembling waked, and, for a season after, 
Could not believe but that I was in hell ; 
Such terrible impression made my dream ! " 

— " Clarence's Dream,'' SHAKESPEARE. 



302 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 



STERN REBUKE. 

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are 
like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, 
but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." 

— Neiv Testament. 



disgust and loathing. — Aspirated Pectoral Quality. Ex- 
pulsive. Final Stress. Forcible Movement. Slow Time. 

"As Sir Launfal made morn through the darksome gate, 

He was 'ware of a leper, crouched by the same, 
Who begged with his hand and moaned as he sate; 

And a loathing over Sir Launful came ; 
The sunshine went out of his soul with a thrill, 

The flesh 'neath his armor 'gan shrink and crawl, 
And midway its leap his heart stood still 

Like a frozen waterfall; 
For this man, so foul and bent of stature, 
Rasped harshly against his dainty nature, 
And seemed the one blot on the summer morn, — 
So he tossed him a piece of gold in scorn." 

— "Vision of Sir Launfal," Lowell. 



Death is here, and death is there, 

Death is busy everywhere, 

All around, within, beneath, 

Above, is death ; and we are death. 

Death has set his mai-k and seal 

On all we are, and all we feel. 

First our pleasures die, and then 

Our hopes, and then our fears, and when 

These are dead, the debt is due, 

Dust claims dust, and we die too." 

— ' ' Death, ' ' Shelley. 



Chapter XXIV. 

Force. 

210. Force, considered as a generic property of the 
voice, may be defined as the variation of strength and 
weakness. This property we have seen to have its base in 
the degree of organic exertion with which language is 
littered, under the varying circumstances or degrees of 
mental stimulus in thought and passion. Force exists 
under the modifications of degree and form. 

The gradations in degree vary from the lightest and 
softest sound utterable to the most powerful effort of the 
human voice. They may be designated by the terms simi- 
larly employed in music : pianissimo (very soft or light) ; 
piano (soft or light) ; mezzo-piano (moderately soft or light) ; 
mezzo (moderate) ; forte (loud or strong) ; fortissimo (very 
loud or strong). 

Although force, in its generic sense, thus comprehends 
the result in sound arising from every degree of organic 
exertion, the term force, when unqualified as to degree, is 
used in its ordinary and more limited application to signify 
only the higher degrees of this vocal property, and is thus 
employed as synonymous with power, strength, energy, inten- 
sity, etc. 

The varieties of form in force have already been de- 
scribed as stress, or the peculiar application of intensity or 
energy to the several parts, or to the whole of the syllabic 
concrete. 

(303) 



304 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 

In all previous studies, force has been practically treated 
and employed in common with other properties of the 
voice, and as inseparable from the elementary practices in 
voice development. At present, it is my object to set 
forth more specifically its relations to the utterance of 
thought and passion. I will first direct the student's atten- 
tion to the general principle of force in this connection, 
leaving the individual expressive character of the several 
stresses to occupy a separate study as a peculiar modifica- 
tion of this principle. 

Force may be applied to single syllables, to words, to 
phrases, or to whole sentences, according as the energy or 
intensity of the state of emotion or passion of the speaker 
shall demand. 

All of the passions are in some degree forcible in their 
expression, from strong energy, in the utterance of joy and 
ecstasy, cheerfulness, etc., to vehement intensity in anger, 
ferocity, rage, revenge, hate, terror, and pain. Certainty is 
also more or less forcible in the expression of its positive- 
ness. The tranquil state of unim passioned thought impels 
the organs to but a moderate degree of exertion. Doubt, 
wicertainty, and secrecy, and the more gentle and plaintive 
emotions, generally employ an abated force or softness of 
utterance. 

The circumstances and situation of a speaker determine 
the accurate degree of force to be applied to language in- 
dependent of the thought, sentiment, or passion it ex- 
presses. When there is distance to be overcome, or large 
space to be filled, the energy of utterance must be cor- 
respondingly increased; whereas, nearness of a speaker to 
his object, or limited space in the dimensions of an audi- 
torium, imply a proportionately abated force. 

211. Force is always to be distinguished from mere loud- 
ness. In all exertion of the animal organism, it is concen- 
tration of effort which implies power in the result ; without 



Force. 305 

this, mere loudness will become bawling, in its extremes; 
with it, there will be a firm, concentrated energy, which 
constitutes the real forcefulness of utterance. I can not 
better illustrate this point than by quoting Thelwell's com- 
pact summary of the essential difference between loudness 
and force : 

"'Force — contradistinct from loudness.' An extract from Thel- 
well's ' Rhythm us : ' 

" Loudness — caused by throwing out a great quantity of breath, 
by mere exertion of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles, while 
the fibers of the glottis are comparatively relaxed. 

" Force — from rigid compression of the fibers connected with the 
primary organ of vocal impulse, by which means a small quantity 
of breath produces stronger and more distinct vibrations, the im- 
pulses of which, though less harsh and stunning, diffuse themselves 
through a wider circuit." 

All correct elementary practice, as previously directed, 
and in the exercises on stress to follow, will develop this 
firmness, efficacy, and economy of effort in organic action 
which constitutes true force, and will thus prepare the 
voice for a similar exertion in the expression of consecu- 
tive language. 

The most intensified form in which language may be 
uttered is that called suppressed force. In this form of ex- 
pression, the animal forces seem to be gathered up for a 
great effort of utterance, but seeming to be held back, as 
it were, by some conflicting or opposing force in the mind, 
labor to expend their power. The result is, a strong, half 
aspirated vocality in the language uttered, representing the 
utmost concentration of effort, and inspiring the hearer 
with a realizing sense of the pent up lava-flood of feeling 
or passion struggling and boiling underneath. Sometimes, 
in such utterance, the vocality is entirely crushed out, and 
the result is the strongest form of articulate whisper, which 

M. E.— 26. 



306 Murdoch's Elocution. 

requires the most intense muscular effort of which the 
voice-making apparatus is capable. 

When the energy of expression is extreme, the breath 
sent forth can not, for some reason, be all converted into 
vocality. Aspiration, therefore, always marks in a greater 
or less degree the voice of all strongly energized or inten- 
sified utterance. For this reason, strongly passionative 
language read in a strong but perfectly pure vocality, be- 
comes merely bombastic or unmeaning loudness. 

212. The ability to command all degrees and forms of 
force is not the only requisite of study. These once ac- 
quired, the student must endeavor constantly to adapt them 
to the circumstances of occasion and expression, so that 
there shall be no waste of power, and no excess in its em- 
ployment. He should never, even in the most extreme 
expression, expend all the power of which he is capable, 
thus leaving no reserve supply for other possible demands 
before recovery of the forces is practicable. Moreover, 
the reader or speaker impresses his hearer not only by the 
force he displays, but by what is recognized as his "re- 
serve power." 

Readers and speakers too often, in seeking to become 
forcible and impressive, lose sight of the discrimination 
which marks the difference between general vehemence 
and properly graduated effects in force. The correct em- 
ployment of this element of voice, in its varied degrees 
and forms, to consistently represent the thought or passion 
to be expressed by the language, may be said to con- 
stitute, in great measure, the light and shade of vocal 
coloring. 

The acquisition of force in degree, from the lightest 
{pianissimo) to the strongest {forte), is the object of all 
elementary exercises, as the natural development of culti- 
vated organs. Under the head of stress we study the form 
of force; degree and form are inseparable. 



Force. 307 



EXAMPLES IN FORCE. 

Suppressed Force. 

amazement, awe, and horror. — Aspirated Pectoral Quality. 
Slowest Movement. Median Stress. Lowest Pitch. Prei>- 
alent Monotone. Extremely Long Pauses. 

"I had a dream, which was not all a dream. 
The bright sun was extinguished ; and the stars 
Did wander darkling in the eternal space, 
Rayless, and pathless ; and the icy earth 
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; 
Morn came, and went, — and came, and brought no day. 

"The world was void; 
The populous and the powerful was a lump, — 
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless, — 
A lump of death — a chaos of hard clay. 
The rivers, lakes, and ocean, all stood still ; 
And nothing stirred within their silent depths: 
Ships, sailorless, lay rotting on the sea ; 
And their masts fell down piecemeal : as they dropped, 
They slept on the abyss without a surge ; — 
The waves were dead ; the tides were in their grave ; 
The moon, their mistress, had expired before ; 
The winds were withered in the stagnant air; 
And the clouds perished : Darkness had no need 
Of aid from them, She — was the universe." 

— "Darkness," BYRON. 

See "Clarence's Dream," first example, very low pitch; 
also "Battle of Waterloo" fourth example, transition in 
pitch, Chapter XXIII. 

"'O-ho,' she muttered, ' Ye 're brave to-day! 
But I hear the little waves laugh and say, 
The broth will be cold that waits at home; 
For it's one to go, but another to come!'" 



308 Murdoch } s Elocution. 

"The skipper hauled at the heavy sail; 
' God be our help,'' he only cried." 

— " The Wreck of River mouth" WHITTIER. 

Subdued Force. 

Tranquillity. Natural Quality. Median Stress. Moderate 
Movement. Middle Pitch. Waves. 

" So, as I sat upon Appledore 

In the calm of a closing summer day, 
And the broken lines of Hampton shore, 

In purple mist of cloudland lay, 
The Rivermouth Rocks their story told; 
And waves aglow with sunset gold, 
Rising and breaking in steady chime, 
Beat the rhythm and kept the time. 

"And the sunset paled, and warmed once more 
With a softer, tenderer afterglow; 
In the east was moonrise, with boats off shore 

And sails in the distance drifting slow. 
The beacon glimmered from Portsmouth bar, 
The White Isle kindled its great red star; 
And life and death in my old-time lay, 
Mingled in peace like the night and day ! " 

— " The Wreck of River mouth" WHITTIER. 

Profund Repose. 

" He who hath bent him o'er the dead, 
Ere the first day of death is fled, — 
The first dark day of nothingness, 
The last of danger and distress, — 
(Before decay's effacing fingers 
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers,) 
And marked the mild angelic air, — 
The rapture of repose that 's there, — 
The fixed yet tender traits that streak 



Force. 309 

The languor of the placid cheek, 

And, — but for that sad, shrouded eye, 

That fires not, — wins not, — weeps not, — now, — 

And but for that chill, changeless brow, 

Where cold obstruction's apathy 

Appals the gazing mourner's heart, 

As if to him it could impart 

The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon, — 

Yes, — but for these and these alone, 

Some moments, — ay, — one treacherous hour, 

He still might doubt the tyrant's power: 

So fair, — so calm, — so softly sealed, 

The first — last look — by death revealed ! " 

— "Aspect of Death," Byron. 



Moderate Force. 

Natural Quality. Gentle Expulsion. Middle Pitch. Gentle, 
Radical, and Median Stress. 

"Once or twice in a lifetime we are permitted to enjoy the charm 
of noble manners, in the presence of a man or woman who have no 
bar in their nature, but whose character emanates freely in their 
word and gesture. A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; 
a beautiful behavior is better than a beautiful form : it gives a 
higher pleasure than statues or pictures, — it is the finest of the fine 
arts. A man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of 
nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his countenance, 
he may abolish all considerations of magnitude, and in his manners 
equal the majesty of the world. I have seen an individual, whose 
manners, though wholly within the conventions of elegant society, 
were never learned there, but were original and commanding, and 
held out protection and prosperity; one who did not need the aid 
of a court suit, but carried the holiday in his eye; who exhilarated 
the fancy by flinging wide the doors of new modes of existence ; 
who shook off the captivity of etiquette with happy, spirited bear- 
ing, good natured and free as Robin Hood; yet with the port of an 
emperor, if need be, calm, serious, and fit to stand the gaze of 
millions." 

— " Manners" Emerson. 



3 1 o Murdochs Elocution. 



Serious Style. 

" Is there not an amusement, having an affinity with the drama, 
which might be usefully introduced among us? I mean, Recitation. 

" A work of genius, recited by a man of fine taste, enthusiasm, 
and powers of elocution, is a very pure and high gratification. 

"Were this art cultivated and encouraged, great numbers, now 
insensible to the most beautiful compositions, might be waked up 
to their excellence and power. 

" It is not easy to conceive of a more effectual way of spreading 
a refined taste through a community. The drama undoubtedly 
appeals more strongly to the passions than recitation; but the latter 
brings out the meaning of the author more. Shakespeare, worthily 
recited, would be better understood than on the stage. 

" Recitation, sufficiently varied, so as to include pieces of chaste 
wit, as well as of pathos, beauty, and sublimity, is adapted to our 
present intellectual progress." 

— '•'•Recitation,'''' CHANNING. 



Declamatory Style. 

" O, Rome! Rome! Thou hast been a tender nurse to me, ay! 
thou hast given to that poor, gentle, timid shepherd lad, who never 
knew a harsher tone than a flute-note, muscles of iron and a heart 
of flint ; taught him to drive the sword through plaited mail and 
links of rugged brass, and warm it in the marrow of his foe. And 
he shall pay thee back, until the yellow Tiber is red as frothing 
wine, and in its deepest ooze thy life-blood lies curdled ! " 

— E. Kellogg. 

"And shall the mortal sons of God 
Be senseless as the trodden clod, 
And darker than the tomb ? 
No, by the mind of man ! 
By the swart Artisan, 

By God, our Sire! 
Our souls have holy light within; 
And every form of grief and sin 



Force. 3 1 1 

Shall see and feel its (ire! 
By earth, and hell and heaven ! 
The shroud of souls is riven ! 

Mind, mind alone, 
Is light, and hope, and power ! 
Earth's deepest night, from this blest hour, 

The night of mind is gone." 

— Eijknkzkr Elliot. 



TREMOR. — With High Pitch and Brilliant, Orotund Quality. 

"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto 
the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he 
hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown 
into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is be- 
come my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him a hab- 
itation ; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a 
man of war: the Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his 
host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned 
in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into 
the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glori- 
ous in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the 
enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast over- 
thrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy 
wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of 
thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood up- 
right as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of 
the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will 
divide the spoil ; my lust shall be satisfied upon them ; I will draw 
my sword, my hand shall destroy them. 

Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them : they 
sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, 
among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in 
praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the 
earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people 
which thou hast redeemed : thou hast guided them in thy strength 
unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear, and be afraid : 
sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the 
dukes of Edom shall be amazed ; the mighty men of Moab, tremb- 



Murdoch's Elocution. 



ling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall 
melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them ; by the greatness 
of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass 
over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. 
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of 
thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for 
thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have 
established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever." 

— Song of Israel. 

" I call upon those whom I address to stand up for the no- 
bility of labor. It is Heaven's great ordinance for human improve- 
ment. Let not that great ordinance be broken down. What do I 
say ? It is broken down ; and it has been broken down for ages. Let 
it then be built up again ; here, if anywhere, on these shores of a 
new world, — of a new civilization. But how, I may be asked, is it 
broken down? Do not men toil? it may be said. They do indeed 
toil ; but they too generally do it because they must. Many submit 
to it as in some sort a degrading necessity ; and they desire nothing 
so much on earth as escape from it. They fulfill the great law of 
labor in the letter, but break it in the spirit ; fulfill it with the 
muscle, but break it with the mind. To some field of labor, mental 
or manual, every idler should fasten, as a chosen and coveted theater 
of improvement. But so is he not impelled to do, under the 
teachings of our imperfect civilization. On the contrary, he sits 
down, folds his hands, and blesses himself in his idleness. This way 
of thinking is the heritage of the absurd and unjust feudal system 
under which serfs labored, and gentlemen spent their lives in fight- 
ing and feasting. It is time that this opprobrium of toil were done 
away. Ashamed to toil, art thou ? Ashamed of thy dingy work- 
shop and dusty labor-field ; of thy hard hand scarred with service 
more honorable than that of war; of thy soiled and weather-stained 
garments, on which mother Nature has embroidered, 'midst sun and 
rain, 'midst fire and steam, her own heraldic honors? Ashamed of 
these tokens and titles, and envious of the flaunting robes of imbe- 
cile idleness and vanity? It is treason to Nature; — it is impiety to 
Heaven ; — it is breaking Heaven's great ordinance. Toil, I repeat — 
toil, either of the brain, of the heart, or of the hand, is the only 
true manhood, the only true nobility." 

" The Nobility of Labor;' Rev. Orville Dewey. 



Force. 3 1 3 

Sustained Force. 
shouting. 

1 Tchassan Ouglou * is on ! 
Tchassan Ouglou is on ! 
And with him to battle 
The faithful are gone. — 

Allah, il allah! 
The tambour is rung ; 
Into his war-saddle 
Each Spahi t hath swung : — 
Now the blast of the desert 
Sweeps over the land, 
And the pale fires of heaven 
Gleam in each Damask brand. 

Allah, il allah! "t 

— Wm. Motherwell. 



Impassioned Force. 

Orotund Quality. Aspirated. Radical and Final Stress. 
Waves and Wider Intervals. High Pitch. Rapid Move- 
ment. 

1 O, woe to you, ye lofty halls ! may no sweet sounds resound, 
Nor harp, nor song your chambers through shall e'er again be 

found, 
Nay ! nought but sighs and groans and slaves that tread their 

timid way, i 
Till you the avenging fury crush to ruin and decay ! 

" And woe, ye fragrant gardens, in may-light soft and fair 
I show to you the ghastly face of that dead minstrel there, 
That you may wither at the sight, your crystal springs grow dry, 
That in the future days of gloom all withered you may lie ! 



* Pronounced Shassan Ooglue. f Spa-hee. X Turkish war-cry. 

M. E.— 27. 



314 Murdoctis Elocution. 

"And woe, thou godless murderer, thou curse of minstrelsy! 
Thy strifes for wreaths of bloody fame are all in vain to thee ! 
Thy name shall be forgotten when in endless night 'tis tossed, 
As e'en forever dying groans in empty air are lost!" 

— " The MinstreVs Curse,'' Uhland. 

Expulsive Orotund, changing to Explosion in the authoi'itative 
command opening the fifth line. High Pitch. Rapid 
Movement. Final Stress, changing to Radical, with Inter- 
vals and Waves. 

"O better that her shattered hulk 
Should sink beneath the wave ; 
Her thunders shook the mighty deep, 
And there should be her grave ; 
Nail to the mast her holy flag, 
Set every threadbare sail, 
And give her to the god of storms, 
The lightning and the gale." 

— " Old Ironsides" Holmes. 



Transition in Force. 

In the following language descriptive of the glory of 
Italy gained at the terrible sacrifice of life, which fell so 
heavily upon Laura Savio, we have an instance of sudden 
transition from impassioned to suppressed force : 

" When Venice and Rome keep their new jubilee, 

When your flag takes all heaven for its white, green and red, 
When you have your country from mountain to sea, 
When King Victor has Italy's crown on his head, 
(And / have my dead.)" 



Chapter XXV. 

Stress: Studies in Stress, with a further Application to the Ex- 
pression of Language. 

213. Almost all of the forms of stress, by changing the 
plain, equable character of the simple concrete, impart to 
it some unusual significance or expression. 

The stresses of primary importance, and of the most fre- 
quent application, are the Radical, the Final, and the 
Median. They may exist with all degrees of force, but 
stress does not in all cases imply a strong enforcement of 
force. 

The compound and thorough stresses do not admit of 
the same gradations in degree as the others named. They 
are, therefore, of more rare occurrence, being among the 
most striking and vivid constituents of language. The 
peculiar use of each stress in expression, will now be 
considered in order. 



Radical Stress. 

Radical stress, as an element of perfected articulation, 
affects all correctly uttered language, imparting to the 
latter, by its several degrees of incisive clearness, a deli- 
cately distinct or more energetic and vivid character. In 
brisk or animated utterance, this initial opening should be 
well marked and positive, while in graver language, lack- 
ing expressive force, it is less pronounced and decisive, 

(315) 



31 6 Murdoch? s Elocution. 

though the organic action should be none the less accurate 
and perfect. 

The most clearly marked and decisive form of the unim- 
passioned radical stress, marks the distinctive words and 
syllables of language in which thought is to be definitely 
contrasted with thought, in order to convey a clear concep- 
tion to the hearer of distinctive ideas entirely independent 
of emotion and passion. It is sometimes called the dis- 
tinctive radical. 

It should, however, never be carried to the extreme of 
sharply puncturing every distinctive word or syllable. To 
exhibit the difference between this simply distinctive use 
of radical stress and its employment as an element of for- 
cible expression, let the following words be spoken simply 
as a clear, distinct statement, implying a slight degree of 
antithetical contrast in the words out and in : 

"As he went out of my presence, you came in." 

Next, let the words "out of my presence" be uttered 
as an angry, imperative exclamation, and the forcible ex- 
plosion on out will be in strong contrast to the delicately 
distinctive character of the opening sound of the same 
word in the first instance given. 

Radical stress, then, has an expressive and an inexpres- 
sive form. It is the only form of stress which is not 
always in some degree expressive. As radical abruptness 
differs from the other stresses in being the root of all 
vocality, and hence a universal function of syllabic utter- 
ance, the reason of this exception is obvious. Although 
its execution is always the same, its degree marks the differ- 
ence between its character as an element of sentiment and 
feeling, and that of a simple exponent of the neutral state 
of unimpassioned thought. 

As a preparation for the following examples in unimpas- 
sioned radical stress, see ^f 146. 



Stress. 3 i 7 



EXAMPLES OF RADICAL STRESS. 

Unimpassioned Radical. 

didactic composition, serious STYLE. — Natural Qualify. 
Moderate Force, with occasional Thirds. Diatonic Melody. 

"Taste and genius are two words frequently joined together, 
and, therefore, by inaccurate thinkers confounded. They signify, 
however, two quite different things. The difference between them 
can be clearly pointed out, and it is of importance to remember it. 
Taste consists in the power of judging; genius, in the power of ex- 
ecuting. One may have a considerable degree of taste in poetry, 
eloquence, or any of the fine arts, who has little or hardly any genius 
for composition or execution in any of these arts ; but genius can 
not be found without including taste also. Genius, therefore, de- 
serves to be considered as a higher power of the mind than taste. 
Genius always imparts something inventive or creative, which does 
not rest in mere sensibility to beauty where it is perceived, but 
which can, moreover, produce new beauties, and exhibit them in 
such a manner as strongly to impress the minds of others. Refined 
taste forms a good critic ; but genius is further necessary to form 
the poet or the orator." 

" Taste and Genius,'" Dr. Hugh Blair. 



Animated Description. 

Natural Quality. Moderate Force. Diatonic Melody, with 
Thirds and Fifths. 

"Within 'twas brilliant all and light, 
A thronging scene of figures bright; 
It glowed on Ellen's dazzled sight, 
As when the setting sun has given 
Ten thousand hues to summer even, 
And, from their tissue, fancy frames 
Aerial knights and fairy dames. 
Still by Fitz-James her footing staid, 



31 8 Murdoch's Elocution. 

A few faint steps she forward made, 
Then slow her drooping head she raised, 
And fearful round the presence gazed ; 
For him she sought, who owned this state, 
The dreaded prince whose will was fate ! 
She gazed on many a princely port, 
Might well have ruled a royal court ; 
On many a splendid garb she gazed — 
Then turned bewildered and amazed, 
For all stood bare; and, in the room, 
Fitz-James alone wore cap and plume. 
To him each lady's look was lent, 
On him each courtier's eye was bent ; 
Midst furs, and silks, and jewels sheen, 
He stood, in simple Lincoln green, 
The center of the glittering ring — 
And Snowdoun's Knight is Scotland's king ! 
As wreath of snow on mountain breast, 
Slides from the rock that gave it rest, 
Poor Ellen glided from her stay, 
And at the monarch's feet she lay." 

— "Lady of the Lake," SCOTT. 

The splendor and brilliancy of the description of Sir 
Lancelot is effected by the employment of Radical Stress. 
High Pitch. Orotund Quality. Rapid Movement. Concrete 
and Discrete Thirds, Fifths, and Waves. 

" A bow-shot from her bower eaves, 
He rode between the barley-sheaves, 
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves, 
And flamed upon the brazen greaves 

Of bold Sir Lancelot. 
A red-cross knight forever kneel'd 
To a lady in his shield, 
That sparkled on the yellow field, 

Beside remote Shalott. 

"The gemmy bridle glitter'd free, 
Like to some branch of stars we see 



Stress, 319 



Hung in the golden Galaxy. 

The bridle bells rang merrily 

As he rude down to Camelotj 
And from his blazon'd baldric slung 
A mighty silver bugle hung, 
And as he rode his armor rung, 

Beside remote Shalott. 

" All in the blue unclouded weather 
Thick-jewel'd shone the saddle-leather, 
The helmet and the helmet-feather 
Burned like one burning flame together, 

As he rode down to Camelot. 
As often thro' the purple night, 
Below the starry clusters bright, 
Some bearded meteor, trailing light, 

Moves over still Shalott. 

" His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd ; 
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode; 
From underneath his helmet flow'd 
His coal-black curls as on he rode, 

As he rode down to Camelot. 
From the bank and from the river 
He flash'd into the crystal mirror, 
' Tirra lirra,' by the river 

Sang Sir Lancelot." 

" The Lady of Shalott," Tennyson. 



Forcible Radical. 

214. The forcible, emphatic, or impassioned radical 
stress, varying in degree from vehement explosion to an 
earnest energy of abruptness, is expressive of all passions 
or emotions of a violent, bold, impetuous, impulsive, or ener- 
getic character ; as strong anger, and states allied to it : 
wrath, rage, impatience, courage, exultation, and imperious 
mirth. 



2)20 Murdoch's Elocution. 

The abrupt burst of violent utterance which characterizes 
the impassioned vocality of fierce anger, issues from the 
organs with an eruptive blast of force that seems at times 
to give an almost superhuman intensity to the sound of the 
voice. Thus, when " the goblin full of wrath," in his 
attempt to repel the arch fiend from the gate of his infernal 
prison, bursts out in the fierce command, "Back to thy 
punishment, false fugitive," the emphatic words find 
utterance in the most impassioned form of radical stress. 
Aspirated force on the intensely impassioned radical stress 
is exemplified in Shylock's vindictive exclamation : 

"Cursed be my tribe, if I forgive him." 

Nature's primitive language of impassioned exclamation 
often receives its power and intensity of expression from 
the vehement explosion of sound which startles the ear 
with its instantaneous burst of force, as in the outbreak of 
angry indignation contained in the following words of 
Beatrice : 

" O heaven, that I were a man ! — 

I would cat his heart in the market-place." 

Or in the sudden terror expressed in the words of Juliet: 

"O! look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost, 
Seeking out Romeo ! " 

Or in the alarm of Lady Macbeth : 

"Alack! I am afraid they have awaked, and 'tis not done." 

Radical stress is also expressive of great positiveness in 
the state of the mind, and is, therefore, employed in im- 
perative words of command, for the purpose of enforcing 
authority. Thus, in the military commands, Atte?ition! 



Stress. 3 2 1 



Right Face I Shoulder Arms I March! Halt! Forward! etc., 

it is the clear, strong explosion of the forcible radical stress 
which reaches every ear, and seems, in its sudden and de- 
cisive character, to compel attention and obedience. 

The intermediate degrees of force in the radical stress, 
lying between the vehement outburst of passionative excite- 
ment and the merely accidental or distinctive form of this 
stress, are the signs of impulsive or impetuous earnestness 
of feeling, not amounting to the vehemence of ungoverned 
passion. Thus, in the eagerness and imaginative fervor of 
the following language of Juliet, the emphatic syllables 
would receive this simply energetic force or fullness of the 
radical stress : 

"Gallop apace, ye fiery footed steeds, 
Toward Phoebus' mansion ; such a waggoner 
As Phaeton would whip you to the west, 
And bring in cloudy night immediately." 

The abrupt explosive enforcement of the radical stress is 
the only means of giving emphatic distinction or expression 
to immutable syllables. When, therefore, such syllables 
require strong emphasis, it must be accomplished by this 
stress, as in the expression of exultation in the word victory 
in the first of the following examples, and in that of angry 
impatience in the word iteration of the second : 

"He shook the fragment of his blade and shouted victory! 1 '' 

"Why this iteration, woman?" 

215. The most forcible or impassioned form of radical 
stress, like all other extremes of expression, is to be em- 
ployed only as in distinction of emphatic words or phrases 
in the current of language. It should never form a drift 
in utterance. Where it gives the general color of expres- 
sion to a succession of words, however, by marking the 
most prominent, those that are subordinate in expression 



Murdoch 's Elocution. 



will generally take on, in the natural consonancy of effects, 
some degree of the same energetic movement, more or less 
diminished, according as their individual value shall de- 
mand a lesser emphasis or simply an energetic articulation. 

Only a persistent and disciplined exercise of the organs 
will secure that command over them by which syllables 
and words are launched, as it were, from the mouth, and 
swept in the current of utterance into the ear in compact, 
penetrating, and vivid forms of forcible expression. 

The attention has been repeatedly directed to the fact of 
the organic act of occlusion necessarily preceding the rad- 
ical abruptness of sound. This occlusion is most under 
command, and the explosion can be most perfectly given, 
on syllables beginning with a tonic element or with an 
abrupt one preceding a tonic. When a syllable begins 
with a subtonic or atonic which is not abrupt, a clear and 
forcible radical stress is not practicable. Some extent of 
abruptness can be given, however, by an energetic practice 
on such combinations. 

Suggestive Exercises. 

216. First utter words in columns with moderate, then 
earnest, then vehement radical stress. Then read in the 
sentence form, with the requisite degree of force and 
abruptness, on each marked syllable, calculated to fully 
express the fierce and vehement nature of the language 
employed. It must be borne in mind that these sentences 
have been arranged only with an eye to the prescribed oral 
effect; they present within a limited space a large number 
of words fitted to the expression of fierce abruptness and 
violent emotion, which it is the function of radical stress to 
enforce; besides, from not being involved and inverted in 
construction, they require no particular exercise of mind to 
grasp their meaning. 



Stress. 



323 



Burly, 


Trembling, 


Trumpets, 


ard, 


Blattant, 


Cowers, 


Clang, 


1 >e[)art, 


Boasted, 


Manly, 


Hurl, 


Dishonored, 


Bragged, 


Bearing, 


Bftckfc, 

Crush, 


Branded, 


Challenged, 


Fearless, 


More, 


Challenger, 


Champion, 


Antagonist, 


Falchion, 


Outdared, 


Outraged, 


Herald, 


Wield, 


Dastard, 


Innocence, 


Thunders, 


Honorable, 


Beggar, 


Hark, 


Recreant, 


Warfare. 



Though — burly — 6/a/tant and Metering — he — r/^a/lenged — the — 
challenger — yet — the — out-dared — dastard— failed. — to — meet — the — 
charge. — He — had — boasted — and bragged — of — his — power — to — 
hurl — back — and — crush — his — antagonist. — Behold — the — result/ — 
A — ^ r gar — for — mercy — knee — is — bent — head — uncovered. — Trevi- 
bling — with— -fear — he — coiuer% — before — the — bold — manly — far- 
ing — of — the— ^Yzrless — chamo'xon — of — innocence. 

Hark ! — 't is— the — trumpets' — clang — three — times — it — sounds. — 
Listen — to — the — herald's — voice — it — thunders — forth. — Recreant — 
and — coward — depart. — Dis/wwored — and — branded — never — more — 
shalt — thou — hold — lance — in — rest — or— -falchion — wield — in — honor- 
able — warfare. 

Executioner — blot — out — his— motto — and — strike — off — his — spurs. — 
Henceforth — let — the — name— of — Gaspard — Count — de — Burgo — 
be — as — a— scoff— a — mockery — and — a — by-word — to — all — honor- 
able — men. 

So — adjudge — the — noble — peers — of — this — high — court — abso- 
lute — and — unalterable. 



An excellent practice consists in taking any piece of 
composition, abounding in strong declamatory or dramatic 
passages, and subjecting it to the above treatment, first 
making columns of words of accentual or emphatic force, 
then phrase them, and finally combine in the form of sen- 
tences. 

217. The precise exactness of the initial opening which 
is insisted upon as a requisite of elementary practice for 
the purposes of vocal discipline, is not to be carried into 
the current of speech, even in the most violent utterance. 
The organs properly trained on the elements will respond 



324 Murdoch's Elocution. 

unconsciously to the fullest requisites of precision for articu- 
lative or expressive purposes. 

The powerful radical of passionative utterance thus 
placed at command by thorough discipline will be a full, 
compact body of sound, suddenly projected, and driven 
rapidly through the rapid concrete with a concentrated 
power. The increased volume of the orotund or the im- 
proved natural voice, gives this full body to the radical, 
relieving it from any thing like sharpness or barking hard- 
ness. 

Imperative Command. 

Explosive Orotund, changing to Aspirated, Impassioned Force. 
Thirds. Wider Intervals and Waves. 

Gloster. — Stay you, that bear the corse, and set it down. 
Anne. — What black magician conjures up this fiend, 
To stop devoted, charitable deeds? 

Gloster. — Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint Paul, 
I '11 make a corse of him that disobeys. 
1st Gent. — My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass. 

Gloster. — Unmannered dog! stand thou when I command: 
Advance thy halberd higher than my breast, 
Or, by Saint Paul, I '11 strike thee to my foot, 
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness. 



Anne. — Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake! 
Gloster. — Never came poison from so sweet a place. 

Anne. — Never hung poison on a fouler toad. 

Out of my sight ! thou dost infect mine eyes. 
Gloster.- — Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine. 

Anne. — Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead! 
Gloster. — I would they were, that I might die at once. 

— " Richard Iff," SHAKESPEARE. 



Stress. 



Impassioned Force. 

Oil, for a tongue to curse the slave, 

Whose treason, like a deadly blight, 
Comes o'er the councils of the brave, 

And blasts them in their hour of might! 
May life's unblessed cup for him 
Be drugged with treacheries to the brim, — 
With hopes that but allure to fly, 

With joys that vanish while he sips, 
Like Dead Sea fruits that tempt the eye, 

But turn to ashes on the lips." 

"Denunciation," Thomas Moore. 



Radical Stress. 

Explosive orotund quality and radical stress, in its differ- 
ent degrees of force, from the merely forcible to the most 
violent forms of utterance, is illustrated in the following 
passage from Milton. High Pitch. Wider Concrete and 
Discrete Intervals. 



: Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, 
That darest, though grim and terrible, advance 
Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, 
That be assured, without leave ask'd of thee : 
Retire, or taste thy folly ; and learn by proof, 
Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven! 
To whom the Goblin, full of wrath, replied : — 
* Art thou that traitor angel, art thou he, 
Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, till then 
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 
Drew after him the third part of heaven's sons 
Conjured against the Highest, for which both thou 
And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd, 
To waste eternal days in woe and pain? 



326 Murdoch's Elocution. 

And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of heaven, 
Hell-doom'd, and breathest defiance here and scorn, 
Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, 
Thy king and lord ! Back to thy punishment, 
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings; 
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 
Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 
Strange horrour seize thee, and pangs unfelt before." 

The difference between the stately movement of the 
epic, and the more colloquial, dramatic form of language, 
is strongly marked in the following passage, which calls for 
the aspirated orotund quality, and the sharper radical 
stress peculiar to the irascible indignation expressed in 
Glostefs words : 

Gloster. — They do me wrong, and I will not endure it. — 
Who are they, that complain unto the king, 
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not? 
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly, 
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumors. 
Because I can not flatter, and speak fair, 
Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog, 
Duck with French nods, and apish courtesy, 
I must be held a rancorous enemy. 
Can not a plain man live, and think no harm, 
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd 
By silken, sly, insinuati?ig Jacks ? 
Grey. — To whom, in all this presence, speaks your grace ? 

Gloster. — To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace. 

When have I injured thee? when done thee wrong t 
Or thee ? — or thee ? — or any of your faction ? 
A plague upon you all/" 

— "Richard III" Shakespeare. 



Chapter XXVI. 
Final Stress. 

218. Final Stress is a greater or less enforcement of 
the final part of the syllabic concrete. Final stress, in its 
more forcible forms, is indicative of a hasty energy in the 
state of mind, similar to that expressed by energetic radical 
stress, still it differs from the latter in seeming to be more 
the result of a comparative predetermination or reflective 
will directing the form of the vocal effort. 

Radical stress comes with an instantaneous and almost 
involuntary burst from the organs, in the opening of the 
syllabic concrete ; but in the final, they seem to be in con- 
scious preparation, as it were, on the first part of the con- 
crete, for the accumulation or concentration of effort at the 
close. 

Final stress is, therefore, the natural means for express- 
ing all mental states of a determined, resolute, or willful 
character; such as earnest resolve; dogged ox fierce obstinacy; 
strong complaint; impatient or angry willfulness ; earnest con- 
viction ; fretful impatience; supplication, etc. It may express 
these several states in various degrees, from the light color- 
ing of a syllable or word by the energy of the final pres- 
sure on some moderate interval or wave, to the vivid force 
of the strongest jerk of sound, at the close of wide upward 
or down-sweeping intervals. 

Final stress gives intensity to the interrogative character 
of the wide-rising intervals, adding in its more forcible 
degree the effect of angry impatience to the intonation of 

(327) 



328 Murdoch's Elocution. 

the question, while it enforces in all cases the positiveness 
of the wide, downward intonation. Indeed, the strongest 
emphasis of final stress, when not interrogative, is always 
combined with the wider downward concretes or waves ter- 
minating with downward constituents; these two elements 
of effect, downward intonation and final stress, naturally 
combining to express the most determined positiveness of 
any passionative state. 

To contrast the less forcible employment of final stress 
with its strong enforcement, let the words, / will not, be 
uttered with simply the strong determination of a fixed 
resolve, and there will be simply a firm pressure at the 
close of the descending interval on will not. 

Then let the words / won't be uttered in the angry, im- 
patient manner of a willful child, and the descending posi- 
tive concrete of won't will exhibit that forcible jerk, or 
sudden powerful accumulation of sound at its termination, 
which constitutes final stress in its most highly expressive 
form. 

Final stress impresses the ear too strongly, even in its 
lighter degrees, to allow of its frequent and continued rep- 
etition as a drift in the current of discourse. It should be 
employed, therefore, only to mark occasional emphatic 
words, or successions of such words in impressive phrases, 
and then shaded in its degrees to their several gradations 
of emphatic value. For exercises for practice on final 
stress see ^f 147. 

Exercises in Final Stress in Expression. 

haughty determination and pride. — Expulsive Orotwid. 
Impassioned Force. Falling Fifths and Waves. 

"Thou may'' si, thou shalt ; I will not go with thee: 
I will instruct my sorrows to be proud ; 



Final Stress. 329 



Fur grief is proud, and makes li is owner stout. 
To me, and to the slate of my gnat grief, 
Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great, 
That no supporter but the huge firm earth 
Can hold it up: here I and sorrows sit; 
Here is my throne, bid kings come bo^u to it" 

— Shakespeare. 

agonized supplication. — Aspirated Quality. Weeping Ut- 
terance. Waves. Chromatic T/iirds and Fifths. 

"Too hard to bear! why did they take me thence? 
O God Almighty, blessed Savior : Thou 
That did'st uphold me on my lonely isle, 
Uphold me, Father, in my loneliness 
A little longer! aid me, give me strength 
Not to tell her, never to let her know. 
Help me not to break in upon her peace. 
My children too! must I not speak to these? 
They know me not. I should betray myself. 
Never ! — no father's kiss for me ! — the girl — 
So like her mother, and the boy, my son ! " 

— "Enoch Arden," Tennyson. 

wretchedness and despair. — Aspirated Quality. Sup- 
pressed Force. Deliberate Movement. Semitonic Thirds and 
unequal Waves. 

' ' Is there a way to forget to think ? 

At your age, sir, home, fortune, friends, 
A dear girl's love, — but I took to drink, — 

The same old story ; you know how it ends. 
If you could have seen these classic features, — 

You needn't laugh, sir; they were not then 
Such a burning libel on God's creatures: 

I was one of your handsome men ! 

"You've set me talking, sir; I'm sorry; 

It makes me wild to think of the change! 
M. E.— 28. 



2,30 Murdochs Elocution. 

What do you care for a begga?-'s story ? 

Is it amusing ? you find it strange ? 
I had a mother so proud of me ! 

'T was well she died before — Do you know 
If the happy spirits in heaven can see 

The ruin and wretchedness here below?" 

— " The Vagabonds,'" TROWBRIDGE. 

declamatory force. — Expulsive Orotund. The Energized 
Utterance giving a final pressure to the Syllables. Extended 
Waves a?id Wider Intervals. 

" Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachu- 
setts; she needs none. There she is; behold her, and judge for 
yourselves. There is her history ; the world knows it by heart. The 
past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lex- 
ington, and Bunker. Hill; and there they will remain forever. The 
bones of her sons, fallen in the great struggle for Independence, 
now lie mingled with the soil of every state, from New England 
to Georgia ; and there they will lie forever. 

"And, sir, where American Liberty raised its first voice, and 
where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in 
the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If dis- 
cord and disunion shall wound it ; if party strife and blind ambition 
shall hawk at and tear it ; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under 
salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed in separating it from 
that Union, by which alone its existence is made sure, — it will stand, 
in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was 
rocked; it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it may 
still retain, over the friends who gather round it ; and it will fall at 
last, if fall it must, amid the proudest monuments of its own glory, 
and on the very spot of its origin." 

"South Carolina and Massachusetts" Webster. 

declamatory force. — Expulsive Orotund. Deliberate Move- 
ment. Wider Intervals and Unequal Waves. 

" Lochiel ! Lochiel ! beware of the day 
When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array ! 
For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight, 



Final Stress. 



And the clans <>f Culloden are scattered in flight. 

They rally, they bleed, for their kingdom and crown; 
Woe, woe to the riders that trample them down. 

O crested Lochiel ! the peerless in might, 

Whose hanners arise on the battlements' height, 

Heaven's fire is around thee, to blast and to burn ; 

Return to thy dwelling ! all lonely return ! 

For the blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood, 

And a wild mother scream o'er her famishing brood." 

— " LochieVs Warning,'' Campbell. 



IMPATIENCE, AND STERN, IMPETUOUS COMMAND. Aspirated 

Expulsive Orotund. Falling Fifths and Discrete Rising 
Thirds. 

" But William answer'd short : 
1 1 can not marry Dora ; by my life, 
I will not marry Dora.' Then the old man 
Was wroth, and doubled up his hands, and said : 
'You will not, boy! you dare to answer thus! 
But in my time a father's word was law, 
And so it shall be now for me. Look to it ; 
Consider, William : take a month to think, 
And let me have an answer to my wish ; 
Or by the Lord that made me, you shall pack, 
And nevermore darken my doors again.' " 

— "Dora" Tennyson. 



Chapter XXVII. 
Median Stress. 

219. Median Stress has been shown to be an enforce- 
ment of the middle of the concrete, giving the effect of a 
swelling fullness to that part of the syllabic utterance. 

This stress sets forth intensity of voice with greater dig- 
nity and elegance than all the other forms of force. It is 
used, therefore, as the natural means of enforcing those 
sentiments and emotions that are combined with, or have 
their root in, elevated thought and the fervor of the imag- 
ination. The swell of the median has a greater or less 
degree of fullness, extent and enforcement, according as 
the feelings it expresses have more or less of ardor, depth, 
and grandeur. 

It may, then, appear under all modifications of degree, 
from the gentle swell which marks the tranquil flowing out 
of the voice on the long quantities of the language of quiet, 
pathetic sentiment or solemnity, to the firm and swelling 
energy which enforces the emphasis of language indicative 
of a high degree of power, combined with dignity or ele- 
vation of feeling. In its lighter forms, and combined with 
the lesser waves, median stress may prevail as a drift of 
dignified expression ; but, when its more vivid degrees are 
blended with the extended intonation of the wider intervals 
and waves, it should only be used as an occasional em- 
phasis, otherwise it will degenerate into bombastic ex- 
cess. 

(332) 



Median Stress. 



220. The gentle force of the median swell, sometimes 
called the temporal pressure, should be placed on every 
syllable of quantity in the following example, which has 
already been given to illustrate the use of the wave of the 
second. Median stress and this wave, given with long 
quantity, are almost invariably combined, as they unite to 
express the same emotions of dignity and grandeur: 

"High on a throne of royal state, which far 
Outshone the wealth of Ornnis and of Ind." 

The wave could be extended to the extent of a third in 
a fuller expression of elevated admiration. This example 
furnishes an instance of a drift of the median stress. On 
the other hand, we have it as a solitary and impressive 
emphasis in the dignified but strong rebuke contained in 
the following language : 

"And Nathan said unto David, thou art the man!" 

Here the swell may be given on a descending fifth or 
octave, or on a wave of the third or fifth. The effect of 
the median stress is much enhanced by the tremor, and 
where it is thus given with the full volume of the orotund, 
it expresses the highest effect of sublimity and grandeur of 
which the human voice is capable. It should be thus 
applied to the following lines: 

" Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great! " 

221. This form of expression is utterly incompatible with 
haste or violence, just as the forcible forms of the other 
stresses are incompatible with grace and deliberation. In 
the case of the latter, the delicate attenuation of the equa- 
ble concrete gives way to the impelling power of energy or 



334 Murdochs Elocution. 

vehemence, while in the former it is always preserved by 
the restraining dignity of the feeling, however deep and 
strong. 

Median stress thus gives an agreeable smoothness to the 
expression of all those modifications of surprise, admiration, 
joy, hope, exultation, etc., which do not exceed the bounds 
of dignity. It also expresses sublime exaltation, terrible or 
solemn warning, reverential and deep pathos, dignified sup- 
plication, smooth insinuation, etc. It is thus preeminently 
the element of effect in the language of poetry and exalted 
imagination, not strongly dramatic. 

Median stress is one of the most important elements in 
the whole range of vocal expression, but one that requires 
the most careful artistic handling, as it is very apt to be- 
come deformed into an offensive drawling or monotone 
when the organs are not well skilled by elementary prac- 
tice in its execution; for, like quantity in syllables with 
which it is inseparably allied, it is an element of voice 
least employed in the ordinary colloquial uses of the latter, 
hence the least ready to respond to the efforts of unedu- 
cated utterance. As all exercises, therefore, on this stress, 
serve to develop a power over quantity also, its ele- 
mentary practice can not be too strongly insisted upon. 

The quotation from the Psalms, given below, calls for 
extended quantity and median stress : 

*'0 Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou 
made them all: the earth is full of thy riches." 

Exercises for Practice on Median Stress. 

Let description of this stress be carefully reviewed (see 
^[ 141) ; and its exercise on elements and syllables, as 
there directed, be carefully repeated, both in the natural 
voice and the orotund, until its mechanical execution is at 
the command of the organs. 



Median Stress. 335 



REFLECTION. 

Effusive Orotund. Subdued Force. Slow Movement. Waves 
and Prevalent Mo?wtone. 

" 'T is a time 
For memory and for tears. Within the deep, 
Still chambers of the heart, a spectre dim, 
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time, 
Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold 
And solemn finger to the beautiful 
And holy visions, that have passed away, 
And left no shadow of their loveliness 
On the dead waste of life. That spectre lifts 
The coffin-lid of Hope and Joy and Love, 
And bending mournfully above the pale, 
Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers 
O'er what has passed to nothingness." 

— Geo. D. Prentice. 



TRANQUILLITY. 



Natural Quality. Moderate Force. Gentle Swell. Waves 
and Thirds. 



'■ How beautiful this night ! The balmiest sigh, 
That vernal zephyrs breathe in evening's ear, 
Were discord to the speaking quietude, 
That wraps this nerveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault, 
Studded with stars unconquerably bright, 
Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, 
Seems like a canopy which love had spread 
To curtain her sleeping world." 

— Shelley. 



336 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 



PATRIOTISM. 

Further Swell, approaching Poetic Utterance. Animated Style. 
Waves and Thirds. 

" Wherever, O man, God's sun first beamed upon thee — where 
the stars of heaven first shone above thee, — where His lightnings 
first declared His omnipotence, and His storm and wind shook thy 
soul with pious awe, — there are thy affections, there is thy country. 
Where the first human eye bent lovingly over thy cradle, — where 
thy mother first bore thee joyfully on her bosom, where thy father 
engraved the words of wisdom on thy heart, — there are thy affec- 
tions, there is thy country." 

— M. E. Arndt. 



HOPE. 

Natural Quality. Effusive Uttera?ice. Gentle Force. Waves, 
Thirds, and Fifths. 

"With thee, sweet Hope, resides the heavenly light, 
That pours remotest rapture on the sight ; 
Thine is the charm of life's bewilder'd way, 
That calls each slumbering passion into play. 
Eternal Hope ! when yonder spheres sublime 
Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of time, 
Thy joyous youth began — but not to fade, 
When all the sister planets have decay'd; 
When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow, 
And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below ; 
Thou, undismayed, shalt o'er the ruins smile, 
And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile." 

— Campbell. 

imitative. 

These verses accurately resemble the gentle swell and 
fall of the Bay of Naples. The swell of the median stress 



Median Stress. 33 7 



is singularly applicable to their delicious harmony. Full 
Natural Quality. 

" Yon deep bark goes 

Where traffic blows 
From lands of sun to lands of snows; — 

This happier one, 

Its course is run 
From lands of snow to lands of sun. 

** O happy ship, 
To rise and dip, 
With the blue chrystal at your lip ! 
O happy crew, 
My heart with you 
Sails, and sails, and sings anew!" 

—"Drifting," Read. 

EXHORTATION. 

Expulsive Orotund Quality. Monotone and Wave. 

"So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan which moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

— W. C. Bryant. 



M. E.-29. 



Chapter XXVIII. 

Thorough Stress. Compound Stress. Loud Concrete. 

Thorough Stress. 

222. This stress is effected by carrying the radical full- 
ness and force through the entire extent of the concrete or 
wave. It may be exemplified by the rude, burly no of 
ignorant indifference. Its expressive character in speech, 
if continued as a current style, is that of coarse bravado 
or blunt rudeness, bluff arrogance, bragging defiance, etc. 
It has, then, no place in the elegant expression of speech, 
though it may be used to occasionally distinguish some em- 
phatic syllable that does not require the abruptness of the 
radical, and yet will not, from its structure, permit any 
form of stress requiring extension, as in the following lines: 

"This knows my punisher, therefore, as far 
From granting he, as I from begging peace." 

Examples of Thorough Stress. 

fierce command. — Aspirated Orotund. Impassioned Force. 
Rapid Utterance. 

"I conjure you, by that which you profess, 
(Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me. 
Though you untie the winds, and let them fight 
Against the churches ; though the yesty waves 
Confound and swallow navigation up ; 
(338) 



Thorough Stress. 339 




Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down ; 

Though castles topple on their warders' heads; 

Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope 

Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure 

Of nature's germins tumble all together, 

Even till destruction sicken, answer me 

To what I ask you." 

— " Macbeth," Shakespeare. 

Leave wringing of your hands. Peace ; sit you down, 

And let me wring your heart ; for so I shall, 

If it be made of penetrable stuff; 

If damned custom have not brazed it so 

That it be proof and bulwark against sense. 



No, by the rooJ., not so. 
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife. 


What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? 
Help, help, ho!" 

— "Hamlet," SHAKESPEARE. 

denunciation and contempt. — Orotund Quality, changing 
to Aspirated Guttural. Impassioned Force. Wide Intervals 
and Unequal Waves. 

"War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war. 
O Lymoges! O Austria! thou dost shame 
That bloody spoil. Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward, 
Thou little valiant, great in villainy ! 
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side ! 
Thou fortune's champion, that dost never fight 
But when her humorous ladyship is by 
To teach thee safety! thou art perjured, too, 
And sooth'st up greatness. What a fool art thou, 
A ramping fool; to brag, and stamp, and swear, 
Upon my party ! Thou cold-blooded slave, 
Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side ? 
Been sworn my soldier ? bidding me depend 



34-0 Murdoch' s Elocution. 

Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength ? 
And dost thou now fall over to my foes? 
Thou wear a lion's hide ! doff it for shame, 
And hang a calf's skin on those recreant limbs." 

— Shakespeare. 



Compound Stress. 

223. Compound stress is used only in cases of the high- 
est intensification of feeling. It combines the force of 
both the radical and of the final stress. Unlike the 
other stresses (except the thorough), it has, obviously, no 
lighter degrees, being always employed to express those 
passionate emphases of vehement feeling or intense energy 
to which the otrTer. forms are inadequate. It combines the 
expressive characteristics of both the stresses which com- 
pose it; owing to its extreme character, it is only an occa- 
sional requisite in utterance. It would be employed on the 
words marked in the following intensely energized shout of 
encouraging command : 

" Arm, warriors, arm for fight; the foe at hand, 
Whom fled we thought, will save us long pursuit this day." 

" Dratv archers, draw your arrows to the head." 

It marks with great force the wide interval of violently 
passionate interrogation, thus : 

"Must /give way to your rash choler? 
Must / be frighted, when a madman stares ? " 

"Dost thou come here to whine, to outface me with leaping in 
her grave? " 



Loud Concrete. 34 



The Loud Concrete. 

224. The loud concrete has more breadth than the equa- 
ble, and less abruptness than thorough stress. It may be 
used to distinguish words in a current of lighter force, or 
it may be used as a drift, in which case the effect is simply 
that of speaking with sustained force. 

In all forcible utterance, every syllable that is not 
marked by some of the peculiar forms of stress described, 
passes through the loud concrete. By its means, then, 
whole phrases or sentences become forte. 



Examples of the Loud Concrete. 

"Lend, lend your wings! I mount, I fly! 
O Grave ! where is thy victory ? 
O Death ! where is thy sting ! " 

Francois. — O ! my Lord ! 

Richelieu. — Thou art bleeding! 

Francois. — A scratch — I have not fail 'df 

For studies in expression on the Tremor see % 152. 



Semitone. 

" The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places : how are the 
mighty fallen ! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets 
of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the 
daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, 
let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields 
of offerings : for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, . 
the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. 
From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of 
Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not 



342 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 



empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, 
and in death they were not divided. They were swifter than 
eagles, they were stronger than lions. I am distressed for thee, my 
brother Jonathan : very pleasant hast thou been unto me : thy love 
to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the 
mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished ! " 

— The Bible. 

Tremor, 
exultant tremor. 

"Be it said in letters both bold and bright: 
Here is the steed that saved the day 
By carrying Sheridan into the fight 

From Winchester — twenty miles away." 

—Read. 



LAUGHING IRONY. 

A fool, a fool! — I met a fool i' th' forest, 

A motley fool ; — a miserable world ! — 

As I do live by food, I met a fool; 

Who laid him down, and bask'd him in the sun, 

And rail'd on lady Fortune in good terms, 

In good set terms, — and yet a motley fool. 

1 Good morrow, fool,' quoth I; 'No, sir,' quoth he, 

' Call me not fool, till heav'n hath sent me fortune ; 

And then he drew a dial from his poke : 

And looking on it with lack-lustre eye, 

Says, very wisely, ' It is ten o'clock ; 

Thus may we see,' quoth he, 'how the world wags 

'T is but an hour ago, since it was nine ; 

And after one hour more 'twill be eleven; 

And so, from hour to hour, Ave ripe and ripe, 

And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot, 

And thereby hangs a tale.' When I did hear 

The motley fool thus moral on the time, 

My lungs began to crow like chanticleer, 

That fools should be so deep contemplative, 



Tremor. 343 



And I did laugh, sans intermission, 

An hour by his dial. O noble fool ! 

A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear." 

— "As You Like It," Shakespeare. 



GRIEF, MIXED WITH PITY, ASSUMING A SMILE. 

"Grief fills the room up of my absent child, 
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me ; 
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, 
Remembers me of all his gracious parts ; 
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form, 
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief." 

— " King John," SHAKESPEARE. 



LOVE COMPLAINING. 

Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now; 

I have done penance for contemning love, 

Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me 

With bitter fasts, with penitential groans, 

With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs : 

For in revenge of my contempt of love, 

Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthralled eyes, 

And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow. 

O gentle Proteus, love 's a mighty lord ; 

And hath so humbled me, as, I confess, 

There is no woe to his correction ; 

Nor, to his service, any joy on earth ; 

Now, no discourse except it be of love ; 

Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep, 

Upon the very simple name of love." 

— " Two Gentlemen of Verona" Shakespeare. 

"Stay, lady — stay, for mercy's sake, 
And hear a helpless orphan's tale; 
Ah ! sure my looks must pity wake — 

'Tis want that makes my cheek so pale! 



344 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Yet I was once a mother's pride, 

And my brave father's hope and joy: 

But in the Nile's proud right he died — 
And I am now an orphan boy. 

" Poor, foolish child ; how pleased was I, 

When news of Nelson's victory came, 
Along the crowded streets to fly, 

To see the lighted windows flame ! 
To force me home my mother sought — 

She could not bear to see my joy! 
For with my father's life 'twas bought — 

And made me a poor orphan boy." 

The tremor is heard in the complaint caused by extreme 
pain. 

"Search there; nay, probe me; search my wounded veins — 
Pull, draw it out — 

Oh, I am shot ! A forked burning arrow 
Sticks across my shoulders : the sad venom flies 
Like light'ning through my flesh, my blood, my marrow. 
Ha ! what a change of torments I endure ! 
A bolt of ice runs hissing through my bowels : 
'Tis, sure, the arm of death; give me a chair; 
Cover me for I freeze, and my teeth chatter, 
And my knees knock together." 

— "Alexander" Lee. 

Pathetic and subdued emotion requires pure tone, abated 
force, slow movement, plaintive semitonic wave, down- 
ward slide, median stress. 

"And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, 
Dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass, 
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, 
Over the unreturning brave, — alas ! 
Ere evening, to be trodden, like the grass, 
Which now beneath them, but above shall grow 



Tremor. 345 



In its next verdure, when this fiery mass 

Of living valor, rolling on the foe, 

And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low." 

—"Battle of Waterloo," Byron. 

The tremor of merriment is heard in Gratiano's words, 
when he tries to rouse Antonio from his melancholy: 

" Let me play the Fool : 
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; 
And let my liver rather heat with wine, 
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. 
Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, 
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster? 
Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice 
By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio, 
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks ; 
There are a sort of men, whose visages 
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond; 
And do a willful stillness entertain, 
With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion 
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit; 
As who shall sry, / am Sir Oracle, 
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark! 
I'll tell thee more of this another time; 
But fish not, with this melancholy bait, 
For this fool's gudgeon, this opinion. 
Come, good Lorenzo: Fare ye well, a while; 
I'll end my exhortation after dinner." 

— «' Merchant of Venice," Shakespeare. 

" Last, came Joy's ecstatic trial ; 
He, with viny crown, advancing, 
First, to the lively pipe, his hand addressed ; 
But, soon, he saw the brisk, awakening, viol ; 
Whose sweet, entrancing voice he loved the best. 
They would have thought, who heard the strain, 
They saw, in Tempe's vale, her native maids, 
Amidst the festal-sounding shades, 




346 Murdoch } s Elocution. 

To some unwearied minstrel dancing ; 

While, as his flying fingers kissed the strings, 

Love framed with Mirth a gay, fantastic round : 

(Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;) 

And he, amidst his frolic play, — 

As if he would the charming air repay, — 

Shook thousand odors from his dewy wings." 

— "Ode to the Passions" Collins. 



Concluding Remarks on Stress. 

225. In our detailed study of the stresses, it has been 
shown that no one form should ever prevail as an exclu- 
sive mode of emphasis or drift during any continuation of 
the current of speech. Though one particular stress may 
give the general color or expressive character to the lan- 
guage, there will still be a constantly intermingling em- 
ployment of the other forms, determined not only by the 
peculiar expression to be conveyed by the individual words 
to be distinguished, but also by their syllabic structure. In 
this way, life and meaning are imparted to language with 
the true variety of nature. Thus, in the following line of 
poetry coming under the intermediate or admirative form 
of expression : 

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean — roll!" 

Many of the quantities are long, and in accordance with 
the sentiment would take the gentle median swell; but 
there are two important syllables in the sentence, deep and 
dark, which, owing to their peculiar structure, would re- 
ceive their expressive color much more naturally from final 
pressure and light radical stress respectively. To enforce 
either of these words, however, with a forcible degree of 
either of the stresses named, would be inappropriate to 



Stress. 347 

the expression of the tranquil grandeur of the language, 
but the use of the light forms named does not mar the 
unity of effects, while it relieves the utterance of the mo- 
notony which would arise from an unvarying use of one 
element of effect. 

The preceding furnishes an example of variation where 
there is a prevailing drift. But the same principle holds, 
only more strongly, in varying the employment of stress in 
the strong emphases of more energetic or passionative lan- 
guage; the various forms intermingling according to the 
peculiar character of the syllabic structure, and the indi- 
vidual expression of the words to be distinguished. Thus, 
in the following line of King Lear's frenzied apostrophe to 
to the elements : 

" Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! dlozu!" 

There is provision in the form of the syllables for every 
form of forcible stress. For example, the first emphatic 
syllable, blow, may take compound stress on an extended 
wave ; crack, strong radical ; cheeks, final or radical ; rage, 
final with continued wave; and the last blow, swelling 
median with tremor on extended wave. Another example 
from Shakespeare furnishes a similar instance of language 
admitting, from its syllabic structure, of this beautiful 
variety in the enforcement of its emphasis: 

" My bounty is as boundless as the sea, 
My love as deep; the more I give to thee, 
The more I have, for both are infinite.'''' 

This is the language of eager love, earnest but not vio- 
lent. Boundless may be distinguished by the median swell 
(with tremor), and deep by final stress; give may receive 
moderate radical stress; have, final; and infinite, the full 
swell of median with tremor. 



348 Murdoch's Elocution. 

The preceding examples will serve to illustrate the great 
variety of expression that may be given to language by a 
practical knowledge of stress. The varied employment of 
the different forms and degrees of stress constitutes the 
effect of light and shade in the artistic coloring of speech. 
As the painter, by constant study and practice, learns to 
blend his colors, shade, and tone, thus heightening his 
effects, so must the student of elocution, by persistent 
effort, master the mechanical use of the voice, and grad- 
ually learn to throw feeling into words, until they stand out 
in bold relief as the expositors of thought, sentiment, and 
passion. 

The ability to grasp and apply his knowledge of stress 
probably requires the exercise of greater intelligence, upon 
the part of the student, than any other principle in the 
theory of elocution. 



Chapter XXIX. 

Time : Quantity and Movement. 

226. Time, as a property of the voice, is the measure or 
duration of its sound. 

The study of time comprehends quantity, or the duration 
of individual syllables, which may be long or short. 

Movement, or time in its relation to syllables in succes- 
sion, as they constitute a quick or slow utterance. 

Pause, or the time the voice is suspended between the 
several parts of discourse, in accordance with both the 
sense of the language to be uttered and the organic neces- 
sities of the speaker. 

Rhythm, or the division of speech into measures of equal 
extent, regulated by the pulsation and remission, or action 
and reaction of the organs. 

Quantity. 

227. The term quantity, when not qualified by the words 
short or immutable, is usually employed as signifying long 
quantity or extension of the syllabic sounds. 

The study of quantity has been necessarily connected 
with many of our preceding studies in quality, intonation, 
stress, etc., for it is not possible to give deliberate, digni- 
fied, or elaborate expression to language, nor to employ the 
most agreeable forms of emphatic distinction, without a 
command over syllabic quantity. 

(349) 



350 Murdoch's Elocution. 

It is the element of dignity and grace, as radical stress is 
that of force and brilliancy. Quantity and radical stress, 
then, are the two great articles of speech; but the former 
is one of the attributes least exercised in colloquial utter- 
ance, which, in its ordinary rapidity, clips short the time 
of. all syllables indiscriminately. 

As it is one of the elements least understood, it is the 
one which receives the least attention in ordinary instruc- 
tion; although it constitutes one of the highest beauties in 
our tongue, and is an absolute essential of a fine delivery. 
No mere ictus or point of sound can be tunable, whereas 
quantity gives ample territory, as it were, for the display 
of agreeable qualities. 

Without quantity in syllables, we could have no graceful 
sweep of the wave, and none of the beauty and grandeur 
of the median swell. 

228. Our language is so constructed, with its numbers 
of indefinite syllables, as to allow of all the beautiful move- 
ments that attend extension of tunable and expressive 
sound. 

Long quantity is, therefore, the natural sign, as ex- 
pressed in the waves, the median stress, and the slow con- 
cretes of the direct intervals, in the mental states of sol- 
emnity, reverential awe, grandeur, veneration, fervent or 
earnest prayer, solemn denunciation or warning, deep pathos, 
ardent admiration, etc., — in short, all states implying the 
deliberation of elevated emotions. The language of such 
emotions artistically uttered in conformity with the laws of 
speech already explained, has an agreeable fullness and 
flowing smoothness akin to music itself, and is, at the same 
time, entirely free from the objectionable chant or mouthing 
arising from a confounding of the characteristics of speech 
and song. 

229. Immutable syllables, not admitting of extension, are 
the proper vehicles for the abrupt explosion of the radical 



Time. 3 5 1 

stress; and, therefore, best adapted to this form of em- 
phasis. 

The mutable quantities afford excellent material, from 
their peculiar compact form, together with a capacity for 
some extension, for the»peculiar emphasis of some of the 
strongest forms of stress, as the thorough, final, and loud 
concrete. 

Movement. 

230. The long or indefinite syllables of language are 
not always absolutely longer than those limited by their 
structure to a short utterance, for they may be spoken long 
or short at will. Any continued succession of syllables, 
uttered with long or short quantities, necessarily either 
retards or quickens the rate of utterance. A current of 
language thus marked is said to have quick or slow time 
or movement. 

231. Pauses also aid in producing either rapid or slow 
movement, their length being always proportionate to the 
syllabic quantities. They are, therefore, always short in 
rapid, and long in slow movement. 

A medium rate of utterance indicates an equable flow 
of thought neither rapid nor sluggish, not exhibiting haste, 
nor expressing deliberation, but calm and unexcited. From 
such a starting-point spring the extremes of rapidity and 
slowness. 

The graceful movements of the courtly minuet, or the 
solemn dirge of the funeral, are in common with long 
quantities, slow movement, moderate intonation, and low 
pitch; while the gleeful skip of the joyful dance, or the 
cheerful tone of the marriage-bell, are associated with 
short quantities, brisk movement, varied melody, and high 
pitch. Haste, anger, vehemence, irritability, and eager 
argument also affect a rapid movement, varied intonations, 



352 Murdoch's Elocution. 

and high pitch. Parenthetic phrases also assume a com- 
paratively quickened rate. 

The following impressive passage from Young furnishes 
a striking instance of the expressive power of long quanti- 
ties and slow rate of utterance. The poet represents him- 
self as wrapt in profoundest thought, in the darkness and 
hush of midnight, meditating on the vast and awful themes 
of death and immortality : 

"Night, sable goddess, from her ebon throne, 
In rayless majesty now stretches forth 
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world. 
Silence how dead, and darkness how profound, 
Nor eye, nor listening ear an object finds. 
Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the general pulse 
Of life stood still, and nature made a pause — 
An awful pause, — prophetic of her end." 

Take, on the other hand, an example of the opposite 
moods of thought and feeling, in which the heart is 
attuned to the voice of mirth and gladness, and dances in 
joyous sympathy to the music of the poet's verse, as in 
ecstatic mood he sings of the sunshine holiday, when 
young and old come forth to play : 

"Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee 
Jest, and youthful jollity, 
Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, 
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, 
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, 
And love to dwell in dimple sleek; 
Come, and trip it as ye go, 
On the light fantastic toe." 

The expressive effect of this language depends, it is ob- 
vious, as much on the briskness and velocity of movement 
in its utterance, as on the other primary elements of 
brilliant quality and high pitch. 



Time. 353 

232. As we continue our analysis of the effect of time, 
as a principal source of poetic inspiration in utterance, we 
shall perceive that the almost funereal solemnity of the 
passage first quoted, and the dancing gayety of the last, 
depend largely on the meter or measure adopted in each 
case, the language in the first case moving with a slow and 
solemn tread, and in the second with a quickened, tripping 
step. 

In the slow movements of a drift or current of language 
indicative of simply an elevated dignity or moderately de- 
liberate grandeur of feeling, the quantities are extended on 
the equable concrete of the plain second, and on the direct 
and inverted wave of this interval on all extendible quanti- 
ties, as explained in our study of waves of the second. 
The notations there given of the passage from Milton, to- 
gether with the comments upon it, will illustrate the value 
of quantity in elevated speech, and of the dignified 
grandeur of this element when associated with the diatonic 
melody and frequent phrases of the monotone. 

Should such language become more strongly admirative 
or adoring, its quantities would be occasionally extended 
on the stronger emphases, through the rising or falling slow 
concretes of the third or fifth, or through the waves of 
these intervals. Long quantities thus employed, together 
with the fullness of the orotund quality, the median swell, 
and occasional tremor, produce the highest vocal expres- 
sion of admiring and adoring man. 

It has been stated that the immutable and unaccented 
syllables of a current of language always pass through the 
rapid concrete, yet, when the style becomes impressively 
deliberate there should be an extension of the time of even 
the rapid concrete of the unaccented syllables sufficient to 
preserve the relative proportions between these and the un- 
usual extension of the accented syllables, and thus to give 
a unity to the vocal current. 

'M. E.-30. 



354 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Individual emphases of quantity may also be given 
where the general current is not slow. This occurs usually 
in the impassioned use of the wider waves, as in the fol- 
lowing violent language of Hamlet to Laertes, — in which, 
although the general movement is rapid, the word "mill- 
ions" is given its most effectual emphasis by the use of an 
extended wave of the wider interval on the indefinite 
quantity of its first syllable : 

"And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw 
Millions of acres on us, till our ground, 
Singeing his pate against the burning zone, 
Make Ossa like a wart." 

Short syllabic quantity may also be employed as a strong 
emphasis in a current not rapid, as in Macbeth's words of 
remorse : 

"I had most need of blessing, 
But amen stuck in my throat." 



Examples of Quantity. 

long quantities in slow movement. 

"Thou art, and wert, and shalt be! Glorious! 
Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate." 

' Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade, 
VJh.zxeJieaves the turf in many a mouldering heap." 

" Calm on its leaf-strezvn bier 
Unlike a gift of Nature to Decay.' 1 '' 

Sailing away, losing the breath of the shores in May" 
"And the gray gulls wheel." 
" Calmness sits throned on yon unmoz'ing cloud." 



Time. 355 



" Blessed is the soul that listeneth to the voice of the /.on/, and 
from his man lips heareth the words of consolation." 

"And the widows of Ashur are loud in their waff" 
"I am, O God, and surely Thou must be!" 

" Thou! whose balance does the mountains weighs 
Whose will the wild tumultuous seas obey, 
Whose breath can turn those watery worlds to flame, 
That Jla me to tempest, and that tempest tame.'' 1 

'■'■Hail, holy love! thou word that sums all bliss." 

"God of my fathers! holy, just, and good! 
My God! my father! my unfailing hope!" 

" Skirr the country round." 



SHORT QUANTITIES, RAPID MOVEMENT. 

"Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin, 
Tick, and Quick, and Jill, and yz», 
7>7, and Nit, and Jffl/, and Win, 
The train that w<z# upon her." 

; ' Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, 
Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles" 

Quick, get me my m/>, <W, and //^/. 
The wicked cat has scratched her. 

'^ Spill her! £&7 her! tear and fo/ter her! 
Smash her! fritf^ her." 



356 Mwdoctis Elocution. 

1 ' A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist ! 
And still it neared and neared : 
As if it dodged a water-sprite 

It plunged, and tacked, and veered.' 1 '' 

" 7aZ£ not to me of tfafrfr or match!" 

"You com?7ion cry of curs!'''' 



Quick Movement. 

Come dance, elfins, dance for my harp is in tune, 
The wave-rocking gales are all lulled to repose; 

And the breath of this exquisite evening in June, 
Is scented with laurel and myrtle and rose. 

; Each lily that bends to the breast of the stream, 
And sleeps on the waters transparently bright, 

Will in ecstasy wake, like a bride from her dream, 

When my tones stir the dark plumes of silence and night. 



GAYETY. 

Down the dimpled greensward dancing, 

Bursts a flaxen-headed bevy ; 
Bud-lipped boys and girls advancing ; — 

Love's irregular little levee! 
Rows of liquid eyes in laughter, 

How they glimmer! How they quiver! 
Sparkling one another after, 

Like bright ripples on a river! 
Tipsy band of rubious faces, 

Flushed with joy's ethereal spirit, 
Make your mocks and sly grimaces 

At Love's self, and do not fear it." 

—Geo. Darley. 



Time, 357 

On .March 7th, June, July, 
October, too, the Nones you spy; 
Except in these, those Nones appear 
On the 5th clay of all the year. 
If to the Nones you add an 8, 
Of all the Ides you '11 find the date. 
Hence we have the 15th for the Ides of March, 
June, July, and October; and the 13th for every other 
month. 

— Nones and Ides. 



Moderate Movement. 

delight.— Natural Quality. Middle Pitch. Gentle Force. 
Waves and Intervals of a Second and Third. 

"Three times shall a young foot-page 
Swim the stream, and climb the mountain, 
And kneel down beside my feet; 
1 Lo ! my master sends this gage, 
Lady, for thy pity's counting ! 
What wilt thou exchange for it?' 

" And the first time, I will send 
A white rose-bud for a guerdon ; 
And the second time, a glove; 
But the third time, I may bend 
From my pride, and answer, ' Pardon 
If he comes to take my love.' 

"Then the young foot-page will run, 
Then my lover will ride faster, 
Till he kneeleth at my knee : 
' I am a duke's eldest son, 
Thousand serfs do call me master, 
But, O Love! I love but thee.'" 

— "Romance of the Swan's A r est,'' Mrs. E. B. Browning. 



358 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

didactic. — Natural Quality. .Median Stress prevalc7it, with- 
out much Swell. Gentle Expulsive Force. Middle Pitch. 
Diatonic Melody, with Waves and Thirds. 

" Read, not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for 
granted ; not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. 
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few 
to be chewed and digested : that is, some books are to be read only 
in parts ; others to be read, but not curiously ; and some few to be 
read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Reading makes a 
full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man ; and, 
therefore, if a man write little he has need of a great memory; if 
he confer little, he has need of a present wit, and if he read little, 
he has need of much cunning to seem to know that he does not." 

— Bacon. 

Deliberate Movement. 

The grandeur and dignity with which Job acknowledges 
God's justice, calls forth dignity of movement and orotund 
quality. His earnestness demands expulsion. The pitch 
is varied, both in sentential form and intonation. Median 
swell is the prevailing stress in the form of waves of a 
second. 

"Then Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth: but 
how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, 
he can not answer him one of a thousand. 

" He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength : who hath hardened 
himself against him, and hath prospered ? Which removeth the 
mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his 
anger. 

"Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars 
thereof tremble. 

" Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not ; and sealeth up 
the stars. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth 
upon the waves of the sea. 

" Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers 
of the south. Which doeth great things past finding out ; yea, and 
wonders without number." 



Time. 359 



Slow Movement. 

serious style. — Full Natural Quality. Gentle Force. Clear 
Radical Movement. Middle Pitch. Diatonic Melody, with 
occasional Thirds and Waves. 

"Not eloquence, but truth, is to be sought in the Holy Scriptures, 
every part of which must be read with the same spirit by which it 
was written. In these, and all other books, it is improvement in 
holiness, not pleasure in the subtlety of thought, or the accuracy of 
expression, that must be principally regarded. We ought to read 
those parts that are simple and devout, with the same affection and 
delight as those of high speculation or profound erudition. What- 
ever book thou readest, suffer not thy mind to be influenced by the 
character of the writer, whether his literary accomplishments be 
great or small. Let thy only motive to read be the love of truth ; 
and, instead of inquiring who it is that writes, give all thy attention 
to the nature of what is written. Man passeth away like the 
shadows of the morning ; but • the word of the Lord endureth for- 
ever:' and that word, without respect of persons, in ways infinitely 
various, speaketh unto all." 

— "Reading the Scriptures and otlier Holy Books" A'Kempis. 



SOLEMNITY. 

God! this is a holy hour: — 
Thy breath is o'er the land ; 

1 feel it in each little flower 
Around me where I stand — 

In all the moonshine scattered fair, 
Above, below me, everywhere, — 
In every dew-bead's glistening sheen, 
In every leaf and blade of green, — 
And in this silence grand and deep 
Wherein thy blessed creatures sleep." 

— Wm. Motherwell, 



360 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Slowest Movement. 

desolation. — Low Pitch. Slightly Aspirated. Suppressed 
Force. Media?i Waves. The Refrain here is Semitonic. 

"And ever when the moon was low, 

And the shrill winds were up and away, 
In the white curtain, to and fro, 

She saw the gusty shadow sway. 
But when the moon was very low, 
And the wild winds bound within their cell, 
The shadow of the poplar fell 
Upon her bed, across her brow. 
She only said, 'The night is dreary, 

He cometh not,' she said; 
She said, ' I am aweary, aweary, 

I would that I were dead ! ' 

"All day within the dreamy house, 

The doors upon their hinges creak'd ; 
The blue fly sung in the pane ; the mouse 

Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd, 
Or from the crevice peer'd about. 
Old faces glimmer'd thro' the doors, 
Old footsteps trod the upper floors, 
Old voices called her from without. 
She only said, ' My life is dreary, 

He cometh not,' she said; 
She said, ' I am aweary, aweary, 

I would that I were dead ! ' " 

— "Mariana" Tennyson. 

Low Pitch. Suppressed Force. Orotund, slightly Aspirated. 

The changes in sentential pitch and intonation at pauses 
will prevent monotony. 

"What is eternity? Can aught 
Paint its duration to the thought? 
Tell every beam the sun emits, 



Time. 361 



When in sublimest noon he sits; 
Tell every light-winged mote that strays 
Within his ample round of rays; 
Tell all the leaves and all the buds, 
That crown the gardens and the woods; 
Tell all the spires of grass the meads 
Produce, when spring propitious leads 
The new-born year; tell all the drops 
The night upon their bended tops 
Sheds in soft silence, to display 
Their beauties with the rising day ; 
Tell all the sand the ocean laves, 
Tell all its changes, all its waves, 
Or tell, with more laborious pains, 
The drops its mighty mass contains. 
Be this astonishing account 
Augmented with the full amount 
Of all the drops the clouds have shed, 
Where'er their watery fleeces spread, 
Through all time's long continued tour, 
From Adam to the present hour; 
Still short the sum : it can not vie 
With the more numerous years that lie 
Imbosomed in eternity." 

— "Eternity," Dr. Thomas Gibbons. 



Rapid Movement. 
Orotund. High Pitch. Loud Concrete, with Waves. 

"We come! we come! and ye feel our might, 
As we're hastening on in our boundless flight; 
And over the mountains, and over the deep, 
Our broad invisible pinions sweep 
Like the spirit of liberty, wild and free, 
And ye look on our works, and own 'tis we; 
Ye call us the Wmds; but can ye tell 
Whither we go, or where we dwell ? 

M.*E. 31. 



^62 Murdoch 's Elocution. 



Our dwelling is in the Almighty's hand; 
We come and we go at his command, 
Though joy or sorrow may mark our track, 
His will is our guide, and we look not back; 
And if, in our wrath, ye would turn us away, 
Or win us in gentle airs to play, 
Then lift up your hearts to him who binds, 
Or frees, as he will the obedient Winds!" 

— " The Winds;' Miss H. F. Gould. 



High Pitch. Gentle Force. Natural Quality. Intervals of 
a Third and Waves of the same. 

"The spring — she is a blessed thing! 
She is mother of the flowers! 
She is the mate of birds and bees, 
The partner of their revelries, 
Our star of hope through wintry hours. 



Up! let us to the fields away, 

And breathe the fresh and balmy air; 

The bird is building in the tree, 

The flower has opened to the bee, 

And health and love and peace are there." 

— " Spring" Mary Howitt. 



Natural Quality. High Pitch. Light Radical. Moderate 
Force. Diatonic Melody, with Waves of the Second. 

"The cock is crowing, 
The stream is flowing, 
The small birds twitter, 
The lake doth glitter; 
The green field sleeps m the sun ; 
The oldest and youngest 
Are at work with the strongest; 



Time. 36, 



The cattle arc grazing, 
Their heads never raising; 
There are forty feeding like one ! 

" Like an army defeated 

The snow hath retreated, 

And now doth fare ill 

On the top of the hare hill; 
The ploughboy is whooping — anon — anon ; 

There's joy in the mountains; 

There's life in the fountains; 

Small clouds are sailing, 

Blue sky prevailing, 
The rain is over and gone ! " 

— "Written in March,'' 1 Wordsworth. 



Chapter XXX. 
Pauses. 

233. Pauses may be divided into two classes: 

(1) Pauses of Sense, which mark the divisions of dis- 
course, for the purpose of simply presenting the meaning 
clearly and distinctly, independent of emotion or passion, 
their place and relative length being determined by the 
grammatical structure of the language. 

(2) Pauses of Emotion, which sometimes coincide in 
place with the pauses of sense, but are usually superadded 
to these, and depend upon emotion, passion, or strongly 
significant emphasis. 

Pauses of Sense. 

234. By distinguishing sentences into their component 
parts and several kinds, some principles and rules may be 
given by which the student may be guided with regard to 
correct pausing. 

A Sentence is an assemblage of words conveying a de- 
claration, an interrogation, a petition, or a command. The 
essential of every sentence is a subject or nominative, and 
a finite verb. Either of these may be modified or unmod- 
ified. 

A Clause is a simple sentence (one subject and one finite 
verb) united to some other sentence of equal value, or de- 
pendent upon some word in a sentence as a modifier. 
(364) 



Pauses. 365 



Clauses are also called members of a sentence of which 
they form a part, and are either co-ordinate or subordinate; as, 

"This is the man u>)io was born blind'''' (subordinate). 

A Phrase is a group of several words not making com- 
plete sense when uttered alone, but used to modify some 
other part of the sentence; as, 

"Truth will at last prevail." 

Sentences may be simple, complex, or compound. A simple 
sentence consists of a nominative and verb, either of which 
may be simple or modified by words or phrases ; as, 

"Alexander wept." Or, 

"Alexander wept for the fate of Darius." Or, 

"The great Alexander wept for the fate of Darius." 

A complex sentence consists of one principal proposition, 
some part or parts of which are modified by a dependent 
clause or clauses; as, 

''God, who is great, rules the universe." 

A compound sentence is composed of two or more sen- 
tences or members of equal rank ; as, 

"Industry is the guardian of innocence, and adversity is the 
school of piety." 

The members of a compound sentence may be individu- 
ally simple, complex, or compound. The following is an 
instance where each member is compound : 

"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but 
Israel doth not know, my people do not consider." 

Compound sentences are further divided into the period 
or compact sentence, and the loose sentence : 

A Period is composed of two or more simple sentences 
or members, each of which, independent of the other, 
does not form complete sense ; or if they do, the latter 



366 Murdoch' s Elocution. 



modifies the former, or inversely, the connection in all 
cases between the parts being very close. 

(a) A Direct Period is that in which the first member is 
dependent for sense upon the latter, or in which the sense 
is not completely formed until the close : 

"Though many things exceed the capacity of our wits, yet they 
are believed." 

(b) The Limited Period is that form of compact sentence 
in which, although the first part forms sense alone, it is 
nevertheless modified by the second, and does not, there- 
fore, form complete sense until the close : 

"Many things are believed, though they exceed the capacity of 
our wits." 

A Loose Sentence contains several members, the first 
one or more of which form complete sense without being 
modified by the latter, which usually adds some reflection, 
illustration, remark, or example : 

"Persons of good taste expect to be pleased at the same time 
they are informed ; and think that the best sense always deserves 
the best language." 

With reference to the principal division of compound 
sentences, when read simply to develop the sense, we 
have the following rules : 

235. Rule I. — hi every Direct period the principal pause 
comes at that part where the sense begins to form, or the ex- 
pectation excited by the first member begins to be answered. 

"Though he slay me, || yet will I trust in him." 

Rule II. — The prificipal pause of an inverted period should 
be placed at that part where the latter member begins to modify 
the former. Thus : 



Pauses. 367 



"Every man that speaks and reasons, is a grammarian and a 
logician, || though he may be utterly unacquainted with the rules 
of grammar and logic." 

Rule III. — A Loose Sentence requires a longer pause between 
its first member {usually a period direct or inverted) and the 
additional member which does not modify it. 

"Persons of good taste expect to be pleased | at the same time 
they are informed ; || and think that the best sense always deserves 
the best language." 

Subordinate pauses divide the subordinate members of 
compound sentences, or the parts of a simple or complex 
sentence. 

Pauses aid in conveying the ideas in a sentence by sepa- 
rating such as are related, and by uniting those that are 
closely associated in sense. In order to determine the 
several degrees of union between words, so as to be able 
to divide them in accordance with this principle, we must 
consider the following : all the words of a simple or com- 
plex sentence may be divided into two general classes — 
those that modify and those that are modified. 

The words which we may consider as modified by all 
others are the nominative and its verb. The modifiers 
are, however, themselves modified by other words, and 
thus the words of a sentence become divisible by pauses 
into superior and subordinate classes, each being composed 
of words more closely united among themselves than the 
several classes are with each other. 

To illustrate : the substantive and verb, with their modi- 
fiers, as the two principal classes of every sentence, admit 
most readily of a pause between them. While the modi- 
fiers of these words are divided into subordinate classes, 
separable by pauses from the words they modify, and from 
each other, according as they possess modifiers of their 



368 Murdoch's Elocution, 

own, to which they are more closely united than to the 
superior words they themselves immediately modify. The 
same principle holds in modifiers of the third degree. 

The places, then, for pausing, in every sentence, are very 
numerous, increasing always with the complexity of the 
sentence. With this in view, the following rules will be 
better understood and applied : 

236. Rule I. — When the nominative of a sentence consists 
of more than one word, or of one important or emphatic wo?'d, 
it should have a pause after it. ,} 

" The great and invincible Alexander | wept for the fate of 
Darius." 

"The fashion of this world | passeth away. To be virtuous | is 
to be happy." 

" Vice I is a monster of so frightful mein, 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen." 

"Self-love I forsook the path it first pursued, 
And formed the public in the private good." 

"Weeping | may endure for a night; but joy | cometh in the 
morning." 

"Our schemes of thought in childhood | are lost in those of 

youth." 

" Hatred and anger | are the greatest poison to the mind." 

Rule II. — Where the adjective follows the substa?itive or 
noun it modifies, and has modifiers of its own, constituting a 
descriptive phrase, it should be separated from its noun by a 
short pause. 

" He was a man | learned and polite." 
"It was a calculation | accurate to the last degree." 



Pauses. 369 

" It was a sight | wonderful to behold." 
"He possesses a style | grand in its simplicity." 

Rule III. — A noun which has modifiers, a?id stands in 
apposition with a noun preceding, whether single or modified, 
must be separated from the latter by a short pause. 

"Lincoln, | President of the United States." 

"George, | King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland." 

"Paul, j the apostle of the Gentiles." 

" Your house is finished, sir, at last, 
A narrower house, | a house of clay." 

" When first thy sire to send on earth, 
Virtue, | his darling child, designed — 
To thee he gave the heavenly birth, 
And bade thee form her infant mind." 

If the nouns in apposition are single, no pause is re- 
quired. Thus : President Lincoln. The Apostle Paul. 
King George. 

Rule IV. — (1) If an adverb is modified, constituting an 
adverbial phrase, it should be separated by a pause, both from 
its verb and from what follows. 

" He owed his success | in great measure | to the exertions of his 
friends." 

"Then must you speak 
Of one who loved | not wisely, | but too well." 

(2) If a single adverb follows the verb it modifies, it must 
be separated from what follows by a pause. 

"He did not act wisely, | and, therefore, has much to regret." 



3 jo Murdoch's Elocution. 

Rule V. — (i) A phrase or clause intervening between t/ie 
nominative and verb, is of the nature of a parenthesis, and 
must be separated from both by a pause. 

"When the Romans and Sabines were at war, and upon the point 
of battle, the women, | who were allied to both, | interposed with 
so many entreaties that they prevented the mutual slaughter." 

"Joseph, 1 who happened to be in the field at the time, | saw 
the carriage approach, and, | in an ecstasy of delight, | hastened to 
meet it." 

(2) Similarly, a phrase or clause coming between an active 
verb and its object is separated from both by a pause. 

"I saw, I standing beside me, j a form of diviner features, and a 
more benign radiance." 

"Thou knowest, j come what may, | that the light of truth can 
never be put out." 

(3) A phrase or clause coining between a verb and its 
auxiliary, must also be separated from both by a pause. 

"This will, I I fear, | affect his happiness. It must, | of neces- 
sity, [ have alarmed him." 

"It will, I I think, | interfere seriously with his plans." 

Rule VI. — Nouns in the case absolute or independent are 
divided from what folloivs by a short pause. 

"Death, j great proprietor of all, 'tis thine 
To tread out empires, and to quench the stars." 

" If a man borrow aught of his neighbor, and it be hurt or die, | 
the owner thereof not being with it, | he shall surely make it good." 



Pauses, 371 



Rule VII. — A short pause always takes place at an ellipsis 
or omission of words. There is no rule for pausing more 
universal than this, — the pause seeming to take the place of 
the words left out. 

"The vain man takes praise for honor; the proud man, | cere- 
mony for respect; the ambitious man, | power for glory." 

"To err is human; to forgive, | divine." 

"Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, | knowledge; and to 
knowledge, | temperance; and to temperance, | patience." 

"Homer was the greater genius; Virgil, | the better artist." 

The following specific rules are referable to the general 
rules of ellipsis just given. 

(1) If several subjects belong in the same manner to otie verb, 
or several verbs in the same manner to one subject, every one 
of the subjects or verbs should take a short pause. 

" Riches, | pleasure, | and health | become evils to those who do 
not know how to use them." 

" My I hopes, | fears, | joys, | pains, | all center in you." 

" He went into the cavern, | found the instruments, | hewed down 
the trees, and, in one day, | put the vessels in a condition for sailing." 

(2) Similarly, if there are several adjectives belo?iging in the 
same manner to one substantive, the latter is to be considered 
as in every case but one omitted, since every adjective must have 
its own noun. 

A short pause, therefore, should come after each adjec- 
tive but the last, when they precede a noun, and when 
they follow it, they should be separated from the noun 
and from each other. 



37 2 Murdochs Elocution. 

"A good, | wise, | learned man is an ornament to the common- 
wealth." 

A man, | wise, | learned, | and good, is an ornament to the com- 
monwealth." 

The same principle of pausing holds where several sub- 
stantives belong in the same manner to one adjective. 

(3) If several adverbs belong in the same manner to one 
verb, each adverb may be considered as having its own verb 
omitted, arid therefore demands a pause. 

Where they precede the verb, each takes a pause after 
it except the last; if they follow, a pause must succeed 
the verb and every adverb. 

"To love I wisely, | rationally, | and prudently | is, in the opinion 
of lovers, not to love at all." 

Wisely, | rationally, | and prudently to love, is, in the opinion of 
lovers, not to love at all." 

The same principle obtains in the case of several verbs 
having but one adverb. 

Rule VIII. — The relative pronouns who, which, and that 
(when in the nominative case), conjunctive adverbs, conjunc- 
tions, prepositions, and all parts of speech used for transition 
and connection, generally require, and always admit of, a short 
pause before them. 

" A man can never be obliged to submit to any power, unless he 
can be satisfied | who is the person | who has a right to exercise it." 

"You'll rue the time | that clogs me with this answer." 

"He continued steadfast | while others wavered." 

" It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, | 
Which gives the stern'st good-night." 



Pauses. 373 



"Death is the season | which brings our affections to the test." 

"'Tis now the very witching time of night, | 
When churchyards yawn." 

"This is the spot | where he ib wont to walk." 

"I will not let thee go | except thou bless me." 

"This let him know, | 
Lest, willfully transgressing, he pretend surprisal." 

"I wrote | because it amused me; I published | because I was 
told it would please." 

"It is more blessed to give | than to receive." 

Prepositions and conjunctions are always more closely 
united with the words they precede than those they follow. 
From the preceding rules, the student will perceive how 
few are the grammatical connections which absolutely re- 
fuse a suspension of vocality for the sake of taking breath. 
The only words, indeed, which seem too intimately con- 
nected to admit a pause between them are the article and 
substantive, the substantive and adjective in their natural 
order, and the preposition and the noun it governs. 

I have introduced the old rhetorical rules for pausing 
in full, because in teaching reading, of late, the subject 
has been much neglected. Audible punctuation demands 
a greater number of pauses than are used in writing, for 
the reason that the voice of the reader takes the place of 
the written page to the hearer; hence, audible pausing is 
as necessary to a clear understanding of a subject as the 
punctuation marks which aid the eye. 

The reader who observes the rules of pausing where the 
sense permits, and utilizes these pauses to renew his breath, 
will never be compelled to break in upon the sense, and, 
therefore, weaken or obscure it. 



374 Murdoch's Elocution. 

The length of pauses is only relative j the following 
marks distinguish four comparative degrees of duration : 
Longest (|| ||); long (||); short ( | ); shortest ( ' ). 

Pauses of Emotion. 

237. The pauses of emotion or of emphasis, as the term 
indicates, depend upon the expression which is to be given 
language, and are not determined by the grammatical 
form, though sometimes coincident with the ordinary divi- 
sions of sense. 

We have seen that in the pauses of sense there is a cer- 
tain relative proportion as to the length; with the pauses 
of emotion this is not the case. A pause of some length 
is often used, either immediately before or after some word 
or phrase of peculiar importance, on which we wish to fix 
the attention of the hearer. 

The pause before awakens curiosity or expectation; and 
the pause after refers the mind back to, or holds it upon, 
the last utterance. This may be called the emphatic pause. 
It produces a most striking effect, but, like all other strong 
emphasis, should not be used unless justified by the im- 
portance of the case. 

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the 
greatest of these is | charity." 

"And Nathan said unto David, Thou | art the man." 

" He v/oke | to die! " 

"But hush! I hark! | a deep sound strikes like a rising knell." 

"Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a | God," 
(or I like a God). 

"As long as an armed foe remained in my country, I would 
never lay down my arms; no; never, || never, || || never." 



Pauses. 375 



In all intensely impassioned language expressive of that 
labor of the mind which seems to choke and retard utter- 
ance, as in strong and suppressed grief, rage, etc., frequent 
pauses occur, arising from the necessity of deep inhalation 
and consequent expansion, to refill the lungs after the air 
has been driven from them. The necessary effort must be 
perceptible, and is an aid in natural expression. 

The mental suffering causes a loss of the holding power, 
and we speak in the exhausting breath when only two or 
three words can be uttered in one expiration, and these 
remarkable inhaling pauses produce Broken Melody. We 
have an example of this in the language of Eve imploring 
Adam's forgiveness, as found in "Paradise Lost:''' 

"On me | exercise not 
Thy hatred | for this misery befallen, 
On me | already lost, || me than thyself 
More miserable! || || both | have sinned, || but thou | 
Against God | only, I || against God | and thee ; j| 
And to the place of judgment 1 will return, || 
There | with my cries 1 importune Heaven, that all 
The sentence | from thy head removed, may light 
On me, |i sole cause 1 to thee | of all this woe, || 
Me, || me only, ||just object of His ire !" 

238. The sudden transitions from one state of feeling to 
another, which mark almost all passionative language, are 
in most all cases preceded by a pause. In all language, 
the pauses correspond in length with the character of the 
movement. When the movement is slow, as in awe, deep 
grief, solemnity, etc., the pauses are long; while in lan- 
guage of hasty passion or eager impatience, etc., or in gay 
and bright emotions, where the movement is rapid, the 
pauses are correspondingly short. 

Considering pauses from another point of view, they 
may be regarded as almost universally the result of empha- 
sis (and in some cases of accent) for every emphatic or 



3 7 6 Murdoch's Elocution. 

strongly accented word is a sort of central point or nu- 
cleus, around which others less impressive, and intimately- 
related in sense, naturally cluster, the whole forming a 
group between pauses, unless several equally strong empha- 
ses succeed each other, when the words stand alone be- 
tween pauses. 

Sentences, then, whether simple, complex, compact, or 
loose, are composed of a number of words, which accents 
or emphases tie together, as it were, into groups resembling 
long words, to be marked off by a pause of greater or less 
extent. These have been termed oratorical portions or 
"oratorical words." They have been also called "em- 
phasis words." The following marked passages will illus- 
trate the division of sentences on this principle — the italics 
indicate the emphasis : 

" Alexander — at — a — feast surrounded — by — flatterers 
heated — with — wine overcome — by — rage led — by — a 

concu-bine is — a — forcible — example that — the — conqueror — of — king- 
doms may — have — neglected the — conquest — of — himself.'''' 

" Is — it — not — monstrous, that — this— player — here, 

But— in — v.— fiction, in — a — dream — of — passion, 

Could — force — his — soul so — to — his — own — conceit.''' 

"If — it — were — done, when — % tis — done, then — 'twere well — 
'T were — done quickly: If — the— assassination 
Could trammel— up — the — consequence, and — catch, — 
With — his — surcease — success. ' ' 

Correct grouping, which is effected by pausing, may be 
called the articulation of sentences. In the language of crit- 
icism, in the present day, it is not an uncommon thing to 
hear it spoken of as distinct articulation. 

Exercises in Pausing. 

"He gave' to misery j all 1 he had — || a tear, 
He gain'd | from Heaven — |J 'twas all he wish'd — 1| a friend." 



Pauses. 2)77 



"'Tis hard to part j when friends are dear, | 
Perhaps | 'twill cost a sigh, || a tear; 
Then steal away, || give little warning, || 
Choose thine own time; || 

Say not | good night; |j but in that happier clime | 
Bid me | good morning." 

"Thy shores | are empires | changed | in all | save thee — 
Assyria, j| Greece, || Rome, || Carthage, || what are they ? " 

" Dark heaving, || boundless, || endless, || and sublime." 

"The war is inevitable || — and let it come! || || I repeat it, || sir, || 
let it || come." 

"If thou be 'st he | — but O, || how fallen! || how changed! " || 

"Here lies the great, — | false marble! || Where? || | 
Nothing || but sordid dust || lies j there." 

"And his family ! — | but he is gone; || that noble heart || beats | 
no more." || 

"This world, | 'tis true, 
Was made | for Caesar — || but for Titus || too." 

"Her neck is bared — | the blow is struck — || the soul is passed 
away ! || |l 
The bright — || the beautiful |j is now || || a bleeding piece of clay ! " 

"But come, | thou goddess, | fair 1 and free, | 
In heav'n | yclep'd | Euphrosyne, | 
And of men | heart-easing Mirth; | 
Whom | lovely Venus | at a birth, | 
With | two sister graces | more, [ 
To ivy-crowned Bacchus | bore." 

" Hop, | and Mop, | and Drap so clear, | 
Pip, | and Trip, | and Skip, | that were j 
To Mab | their sovereign dear, — | 
Her special maids | of honor." 



Chapter XXXI. 
Rhythmus or Measure of Speech. 

239. All speech is composed of a succession of heavy 
and light sounds, or accented and unaccented syllables, 
produced by the alternate action and reaction of the 
larynx, this organ being subject to the law of pulsation and 
remission common to all muscular effort. 

From this peculiarity in the construction of language, it 
may be divided into rhythmical or accentual measures, as 
in music, containing a heavy and a light portion of sound, 
and being of about equal time value. 

Taking the mark (/\) to represent the heavy or ac- 
cented sounds, and the mark (.'. ) the light or unaccented, 
and the bars ( | | ), as in music, to distinguish and sepa- 
rate one measure from another to the eye, the pulsation 
and remission of the voice producing a measure may be 
illustrated as follows : 

Spirit I spirited | spiritual | spiritually. 

A .-. A .-. .-. A .-. .-. .-. A 

The pulsative act never occurs upon more than one sylla- 
ble of a measure, because if two or more consecutive sylla- 
bles are accented, or uttered with the pulsative action of 
the organ, there will unavoidably be either a remissive 
action at the termination, or a pause corresponding with 
the remission, by which the organs recover themselves 
after pulsation. Thus, if the word hunt be uttered twice 
under accent there will be a perceptible hiatus between 
them corresponding to the remiss action, which pause or 
(378) 



Measure of Speech, 379 

rest, with the pulsative action on hunt, would constitute the 
time of a full measure. The repetition of the word occu- 
pies the same time as | hunter | hunt. 
a .-. a .-. 

The unaccented portion of a measure may, however, be 
divided among as many as four syllables, as illustrated in 
the word spiritually, already marked, this word occupying 
no greater length of time for the utterance than the shorter 
word, spirit, each filling a measure, or defining the simple 
action and reaction of the organs. 

A single syllable of quantity may constitute a measure, 
for it may be extended over the time of a full measure, its 
radical constituting the pulsative and heavy portion, and 
the vanish the unaccented or light. Thus, the word Hail! 
uttered with extended time, admits of the pulsation and re- 
mission of the voice as clearly as if it consisted of two 
written syllables, thus : | Hail ! | 

A .-. 

240. A Perfect Measure of speech may consist, then, of 
one syllable or of any number, not exceeding five, uttered 
by a pulsative and remiss action of the voice. 

An Imperfect Measure consists of one in which either the 
accented or unaccented portion of the measure is wanting. 
The silence is represented in the marking by the following 
symbol (7). which indicates the rest of the voice. Thus: 

I In- J comparable | / at- | tack / 



An Immutable Syllable, such as tack, is incapable of fill- 
ing a measure having no extent of vanish upon which the 
remiss action may take place. 

241. Altogether, there are five kinds of measure which 
enter into language : 

1. The Emphatic Measure, which consists of one syllable, 

uttered with long quantity, as : | Roll | on. | 

a .-. A .-. 



380 Murdoch's Elocution. 

2. The Common Measure, which consists of two syllables, 
as: 

Spirit I water | nature. 

a .-. a .-. a .-. 

3. The Triple Measure, which consists of three syllables, 
the remissive portion of the measure being divided be- 
tween two, as : 

Spirited j comedy | natural. 

a .-. .-. a .-. .-. a .-. .-. 

4. The Quadruple Measure, consisting of four syllables, 
the remissive action being divided between three of them, 
as : 

Spiritual | comfortable | naturally. 

a .-. .-. .-. a .-. .-. .-. a .-. .-. .-. 

5. The Accelerated Measure, which consists of five sylla- 
bles, four being apportioned to the unaccented portion of 
the measure. It is called the base foot, and contains the 
greatest number of syllables admissable to one pulsative 
and remiss effort of the organs; it is not, except in the 
rapidity of colloquial utterance, much employed: 

Spiritually | voluntarily 
a .-. .-. .-. .-. a .-. .-. .-. .-. 

If the I soul I ^ be I happily dis- | posed *Jf | everything 

becomes | capable of af- | fording enter- | tainment. 
a .-. .-. .-. .-. a .-. .-. .-. A 

Such a measure necessitates extreme acceleration or ra- 
pidity in its utterance, and would, therefore, in a more dig- 
nified reading, be broken up into two measures ; thus, 

Capable | *j of af- | fording. 






Measure of Speech. 381 

Shakespeare and Milton, the poets most distinguished for 
the happy mechanism of their verse, never employed more 
than four syllables in a measure. The common and triple 
measure predominates in all poetry. Prose embraces all 
kinds in its less regulated utterances. 

242. In the study of this subject, it must be remembered 
that there are not only syllables, but many words, in sen- 
tences, that are unaccented, and such words belong to the 
remiss portions of the different speech measures. 

In the sentence, "Truth is the basis of excellence," the 
words truth, basis, and excellence have accented syllables. 
The other words have no accents. The latter must, there- 
fore, be, as it were, "hooked on" to the more prominent 
words in the different measures of speech in such a man- 
ner that they may be pronounced during the remiss action 
of the voice. They will thus neither receive an undue sig- 
nificance, nor interfere with the general flow of utterance 
during the sentence. 

Words, independently of each other, convey but one, 
certain, limited meaning. By uniting them together, these 
significations are either restrained or enlarged. In this 
unison, the most significant words adopt the accent, whilst 
the others are slurred over as unaccented syllables of the 
same word. The whole is known as an oratorical word, 
and it is either comprised within one measure, or is broken 
up in such a manner as to form imperfect measures. 

There are also certain parts of speech that are naturally 
slurred over in discourse to give prominence to more im- 
portant words; as, articles, conjunctions, prepositions, auxil- 
iaries, relatives, unimportant pronouns, the verb to be, and 
sometimes the adjective. Connected discourse throws the ac- 
cent upon words of more significance, to which these become 
united as modifying syllables. They are then pronounced 
during the remiss action of vocal organs, and belong to 
the unaccented portion of the different speech measures. 



382 Miwdocti s Elocution. 

If I say, Water — boy — in — fish — saw — a — the, as though 
I were reading the words from a vocabulary, each word 
will have the same accentual importance, no one being of 
more significance than the others, and each will occupy a 
full measure of speech. But if I now join these words so 
as to make a complete sentence of them, a change will 
take place in their utterance; one half of them will lose 
their accents, and will be slurred over to give prominence 
to the more important words : The — boy saw a — fish in — 
the — water. The sentence becomes one of four significant 
words to which modifying syllables are added to show the 
relation these words bear to each other. Divided or scored 
according to the measure of speech, they would stand as 
follows : 

1 The I boy *? | saw *j | *f a | fish 7 | *! in the | water.-- 

A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A ••• A .-. .-. A .-. 

243. When the relative value of the accented and the 
unaccented syllables of speech is not observed, or is over- 
borne by extreme effort to articulate distinctly, the result is 
a mouthing utterance, by which the unaccented syllables 
are brought into undue prominence, and the natural move- 
ments of the voice through the measure of speech de- 
stroyed. This tedious and halting utterance is observable 
in the reading of the child who takes every word to be of 
equal value, and proceeds by accent or heavy movement 
alone, thus : 

The I boy 7 | saw 1 | a *7 | fish *7 | in 7 | the | water. 

A .•• A .". A .'• A . - . A .-. A .'. A .". A .•. 

Instead of the smooth flowing utt.ers.nce of the measured 



* These groups of words have the effect of one long word, and 
have been called oratorical words. For a full explanation of ora- 
torical words see Emphasis, ^264. 



Measure of Speech. 383 

sounds as first scored in this example according to the 
natural utterance. 

On the other hand, language is often enfeebled by allow- 
ing words to drop from the organs on the remiss action 
which should have an accentual value. In this way, the 
noun is often sunk to a subordinate position, as if implied 
or understood in the sentence, while the adjective main- 
tains a prominent position. Thus, in Mercutio's descrip- 
tion of Queen Mab, I have heard these lines read in the 
following manner: 

*? Her I wagon spokes | made of long | spinner's legs. 

A .-. .-. A .-. .-. A 

When, in order to convey the just emphasis, it would 
adopt the following measure : 

7 Her I wagon | spokes | made of | long | spinner's | legs. 

A .*. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .'. A .-. A .-. 

This is a frequent fault of emphasis, serving to give un- 
due prominence to the adjective and slurring the noun. 

244. Emphasis falling upon different words of the same 
sentence under different significations will alter the divi- 
sions of its measures. To illustrate : 

/ I 7 will I walk with him. 

A .'. A .-. A 

That is, not you will walk with him. 

•7 I I will I walk with him. 
That is, I am determined to walk with him. 

I will I walk I with him. 
That is, I will not ride. 

I will I walk with | him. 
That is, not with her. 



384 Murdoch's Elocution. 

245. Two or more accented syllables of long quantity, 
following in immediate succession, are generally extended 
over the time of a whole measure, though this is at the 
option of the reader or speaker, and according to the sense 
or sentiment of the language. Thus, the following line 
may be read according to either of the scorings here given. 
The heavy (A) an d light (.'•) marks will be omitted in 
the scorings to follow : 

Rocks, I caves, | lakes, | fens, | bogs, and | shades of | death, 
Or, 

Rocks, «7 I caves, •* | lakes, ^ | fens, *f | bogs, and | shades of | 
death. 

Two or more immutable syllables coming together always 
require a measure for each, with a pause on the unaccented 
portion. 

Back, *j I back ^ | on your | lives. 

Mutable syllables, however, if strongly emphatic, may 
be extended so as to fill up their respective measures when 
coming in immediate succession, thus : 

Yet, I O I Lord | God, | most | holy. 

246. The voice always moves from heavy to light, or 
from accent to unaccented. If, therefore, a line or sen- 
tence begins with an unaccented syllable, the first measure 
is necessarily imperfect, the accented portion being marked 
by a rest, thus : 

•7 In the I second | century | *f of the | Christian | era. 
•7 How J vain | ^ are | all things | here be- | low. 



Measure of Speech. 385 

Respiration, measure, and rhythm alike require pauses, 
which prevent the words from becoming entangled with 
each other, and enable the mind to perceive their connec- 
tions and meaning with perfect facility. 

A whole measure, or even two or more, may be passed 
over in silence when the longer pauses of discourse require 
such continued suspension of the voice. Thus, in the fol- 
lowing sentence, before quoted as strongly emphatic, a 
pause of an entire measure would occur, beside the shorter 
rests arising from the imperfect measures. 

Back «7 I 1 to thy | punishment ! | f *j | false | fugitive. 

Pauses extending through more than a measure are illus- 
trated in the scoring of the next passage : 

Then shall be | brought to | pass | •* the | saying, | ^ *f | 
Death | *j is | swallowed | up *J \ *j in | victory. | ^ 7 | •/ ^ | O | 
death ! | where is thy | sting ? | f f \ *j f | O | grave ! | •] f \ 
where is thy | victory ? | ^ ^ | ^ f \ *j The | sting of | death j 
•* is I sin ', \ *1 *1 \ *1 an d the | strength of | sin [ •* is the | law. 

247. From the accentual character of words, imperfect 
measures must often occur in speech, and their pauses, to- 
gether with the measures of complete silence, permit a 
constant supply of breath to the speaker without destroying 
the rhythm of language. 

The pauses which a clear utterance of the meaning re- 
quires are always proportioned in their length to the pre- 
vailing character of the emotions which predominate in 
any given passage, and consequently to the current of time, 
during the audible successions of the the sounds of the 
voice from phrase to phrase, or from clause to clause, in 
every sentence. The necessity of the close observance of 
measured beats and frequent rests in reading, until the 
student has acquired a perfect control over the pulsative 

M. E.— 33. 



386 Murdoch's Elocution. 

action of speech in its relation to force and measure, will 
readily be perceived by attempting to read with impas- 
sioned force any piece of vehement or bold declamation, 
such as Macduff's "Awake! awake! ring the alarm bell," 
etc. Unless a metrical rhythmus is observed in such reci- 
tation, with frequent pauses, however short, added to those 
marked in the punctuation, the reader will find himself 
constantly out of breath. 

248. In the production of speech, the muscles of the 
larynx are subservient to the will in a certain sense of 
conformity to the laws of other related organic actions con- 
trolling the processes of inspiration and expiration. The 
pulsation and remission of the heart acts at periodic inter- 
vals with the action and reaction of the glottis, both func- 
tions being necessarily sympathetic with the intermitting 
regularity of the organic function of breathing. 

Thus, by a subtle law of natural affinity, these compli- 
cated movements, partly voluntary and partly involuntary, 
when not interfered with, produce a general effect without 
any interference with individual laws. The whole of this 
wonderful mechanism works by the natural laws of pulsa- 
tive and remiss action. The single pulsing act of each 
organ with its remiss operation, or that by which the ex- 
erted organs regain their position, may be illustrated in the 
repeated movements of opening and shutting the hand. 

It must be apparent that any disturbance of the periodic 
and closely related action of the heart, lungs, and glottis 
must result in injury or destruction to such sensitive organ- 
ism. If, then, a person's method of speaking be such as 
interferes with these processes, just in proportion to the de- 
gree of interference will it be injurious to the general health 
and to that of the organs themselves, and in the same pro- 
portion imperfect and ineffective as an expressive agent. 

249. The word rhythm implies, by its etymology, a refer- 
ence to the flow or current of the stream of voice through 



Measure of Speech. 387 

the measure of speech. There are two different modes of 
employing the measures of speech : one proceeds by regu- 
lar repetitions or recurrence of the same measure, and is 
called verse; the other presents no regularly ordered succes- 
sion or arrangement of any of these measures, but employs 
all, and is called prose. 

All poetry is based upon either the common or the triple 
measure, its rhythmus, in either case, consisting for the 
most part of either of these two measures, and constituting 
either common or triple time poetry. 



EXAMPLE OF COMMON TIME POETRY. 

Know I then thy | self, ^ | ^ pre | sume not | God to | scan ; 
•7 The J proper | study | ^ of | man | kind | ^ is | man. | 



EXAMPLE OF TRIPLE TIME POETRY. 

•7 What a I rapturous | song, | 
•f When the | glorified | throng | 
•f In the I spirit of | harmony | join. 

In either style of poetry, other measures besides that 
giving its character to the verse, are occasionally intro- 
duced, and rests of various lengths render the imperfect 
measure a necessity. An emphatic measure is also occa- 
sionally used to relieve the ear from the monotony of the 
unvaried successions of the same measure. 

250. The great art of the poet consists in such a nice 
adjustment of the different measures, and of the several 
rests of the voice, as shall produce an agreeable variety 
without disturbing too much the regularity of the mech- 
anism of his verse. 



388 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

The difference between the mechanism of prose and verse 
consists in the indiscriminate employment of all the measures 
of speech in prose, whereas in verse either the common 
or triple measure prevails. An agreeable rhythm in prose, 
however, requires that while there are no fixed responses 
in the measures, there is a certain regularity in their recur- 
rence, and in the adjustment of pauses, which produces an 
effect something akin to the rhythmical flow of verse. 

The poetical spirit pervading elevated prose naturally 
demands the harmonious effects of numbers, and an artistic 
writer will adopt in such cases that rhythmical flow of 
words which approaches very nearly to the regularity of 
poetry, and is called numerous prose. 

In certain states of exultation, numbers present them- 
selves so readily to the mind that verses of all kinds may 
be frequently found in the prose writings of an author. 
Charles Dickens, in his most imaginative passages, displays 
so exact an ear for the metrical flow of sound in language 
that many passages from his novels display a rhythm as 
regular and beautiful as that of poetry itself. The same is 
true of Scott, and of our own Irving, and indeed of many 
of the best prose writers. But the rhythm of prose is 
necessarily much more varied than that of verse; first, be- 
cause a verse is included within comparatively small limits, 
while prose often runs through long periods ; and, secondly, 
because verse is always in some degree uniform, and flows 
in one stream, while prose, unless it be varied in its rhyth- 
mus, offends by monotony. 

251. The best poetical rhythmus is that which admits of 
occasional deviations from the current of accentuation, so 
ordered that they may not continue long enough to de- 
stroy the general character of regularity, whilst the most 
skillfully arranged prose is that constantly showing the be- 
ginning of a regular rhythmus, or metrical succession, which 
loses itself in a new series of measures before the ear has 






Measure of Speceli. 389 

time to become impressed with any determinate order of 
accent or quantity. 

The rhythmical beauty of language arises as much from 
the pauses or rests of the voice as from the admeasure- 
ment of the syllables to a certain metrical order. Pauses, 
properly employed, give an agreeable effect of variety to 
language, dividing the portions of discourse into what are 
called pausal sections. By varying the number of ac- 
centual measures between the boundaries of these pauses, 
an agreeable effect is produced, which is lost in the mo- 
notony of more regularly measured divisions. This may 
be illustrated by an extract taken from the writings of the 
Rev. Robert Hall: 

Without God in the World. 

" *j The ex | elusion | «y of a Su | preme | Being, | ^ and of a j 
superin | tending | providence, | | tends di | rectly | ^ to the 
de I struction | ^ of | moral J taste, | | | ^ It j robs the | uni- 
verse | •* of I all I finished j ^ and con | summate j excel- 
lence, I I even in i | dea. | | | ^ The | admi ] ration of | 
perfect | wisdom and | goodness, | •* for | which we are j 
formed, | •? and which | kindles | ^ such un | speakable j 
rapture | ^ in the | soul, | | finding in the | regions of | scepti- 
cism I nothing | *f to | which it corres | ponds, | droops | ^ and | 
languishes. | | | ^ In a | world | ^ which pre | sents a | fair | 
spectacle | ^ of | order and | beauty, | ^ of a | vast | family, | | 
nourished | ^ and sup | ported | ^ by an Al | mighty | Par- 
ent; I j ^ in a I world, | ^ which | leads the de | vout j mind, | 
step by I step, | ^ to the | contem | plation | ^ of the | first j 
fair I ^ and the | first | good, | | y the | sceptic | ^ is en | com- 
passed with I nothing | ^ but ob | scurity, | meanness, | ^ and 
dis I order. | 

" When we re | fleet on the | manner | ^ in | which the i | dea 
of I Deity | ^ is | formed, | | *j we | must be con | vinced | *f 
that I such an i | dea, | intimately | present to the | mind, | 
must I have a most | powerful ef | feet | ^ in re | fining the j 



39° Murdoch's Elocution. 

moral | taste. | | | ^ Com | posed of the | richest | ele- 
ments, | ^ it em | braces, | ^ in the | character | «y of a be | nefi- 
cent | Parent | ^ and Al | mighty | Ruler, | ^ what | ever is | 
venerable | «y in | wisdom, | | ^ what | ever is j awful | •* in au- | 
thority, | | ^ what | ever is | touching | «* in | goodness." | 

The following passage from Dickens, whose writings 
abound in similar instances, will furnish an example of the 
charm of rhythmic prose : 

" Dear, | gentle, | patient, | noble | Nell | was | dead. | 7 7 | 

A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .'. A .?. 

7 Her | little | bird, | 7 a | poor 7 | slight 7 | thing, | *1 the | 

A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .\ A 

pressure of a | finger would have | crushed, / | / was | stirring | 

A .-. .-. .-. A ••• .'. .-. A .*. A .-. A ••• 

nimbly | 7 in its | cage, | / and the | strong | heart | 7 of its | 

A .-. A .-. .-. A .-. A .-. .'. A .-. A .-. A .". .-. 

child- | mistress | 7 was | still | \ and | motionless | / for | 

A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. A .-. .-. A .-. 

ever." | 



A 



252. From the preceding study of principles and exam- 
ples, the student will now be prepared to understand the 
following definition of rhythm, in our language, considered 
in its broadest and most comprehensive sense. 

Rhythm in speech is a measured succession of sounds in 
which accent, quantity, and pause are so proportioned and 
arranged as to produce upon the ear an agreeable smooth- 
ness and regularity of effect. 

253. Rhythmus has been well described by a Greek 
writer as supporting or sustaining the voice. This it does 
by leading it with an easy step through every variety of 
melody, stress, quantity, and movement, with that perfect 
and natural regularity of organic action by which, no matter 
how rapid or vehement the utterance, the words are pre- 
vented from stumbling against or running into each other, 
as it were, and thus thwarting the expectation of both the 
mind and the ear. 



Measure of Speech. 391 

Within the limits of artistic effect, therefore, rhythm is 
an aid and an ornament to utterance, but it will become a 
deformity if made too prominent and obtrusive. Thus, 
while the lack of a firmly marked rhythm produces a wan- 
dering and uncertain effect upon the ear, on the other 
hand, the extreme of marking the time or "beat" of the 
measure too pointedly, and with a jerking accent, offends 
the ear, resembling a music lesson in which the measure is 
accompanied by a heavy or exaggerated beat, in order to 
improve the pupil whose organ of time is dull. 

A strongly marked rhythm in reading, especially in 
verse, will also become a weary monotony if the melody be 
not diversified to meet the demands of a just variety, and 
the expressive character of the language. 

254. A thorough knowledge of the rules governing ver- 
sification is very necessary in a study of rhythm; this 
should be studied from a standard text-book of rhetoric. 
Accent, quantity, and pause being of equal value in 
rhythm, the metrical construction of a poem must be un- 
derstood before it can be well rendered. 

A poem must not only be perfect in its form, — and meter 
alone, is the mechanical part, — but it must equally charm the 
ear in delivery. In the recitation of a poem, we add to 
its accents, or metrical feet, for the purpose of expression, 
time, and pause; this never interferes with the accent, for 
the reason that the accent always marks the strong beat 
of the measure. In Iambic verse the scansion would be : 
Advanced | in view | they stand | a hor | rid front. | * 

Conforming to the rules of rhythm, the same line would 
be rendered thus : 
•7 Ad I vanced In | view | «y they | stand | •f a | horrid | front. ^ | 

* The teacher should allow the student to write a line upon the 
blackboard in one of these forms of verse, and then mark it as it 
should be read. 



39 2 Murdoch' s Elocution. 

Anapestic meter moves in the same manner; trochaic 
and dactylic, beginning with the accented syllable, move 
with the rhythm. For a complete study of prosodial and 
rhythmical accent combined, see the "Revision of Vocal 
Culture" by the Rev. Francis T. Russell. 

•7 "My | Lords, ^ | ^ f | I am a | mazed, | f f | yes, my | 
Lords, •* I I am a | mazed at his | Grace's | speech. | *f *T | •? *T | 
•7 The I noble | Duke | can not | look be | fore him, | *f be | hind 
him, I ^ or on I either | side of him, | •* with | out * | seeing | 
some *f I noble | peer •* | ^ who | owes his | seat •* | in this | 
house I *j to his sue | cessful ex | ertions | ^ in the pro | fession | 
•7 to I which 1 I I be | long, f | ^ *j \ ^ f | Does he not | feel 
•f I that it is as | honorable | ^ to | owe it to | these | ^ as to | 
being the | accident | f of an | accident ? | f f | ^ «y | f To | all 
these I noble | Lords, «jf | ^ the | language of the | noble | Duke 
•7 I is as I applicable | and as in | suiting | ^ as it | is to my | self. 
•> j * * 1 * «f I But I I do not I fear f | f to | meet it | single | 
•* and a | lone. *l\*1*l\*1*l\ ^° one I venerates the | peerage | 
more than | I do. | ^ *t | But, my | Lords, *f | •* I | must ^ | say 
•j I *j that the | peerage | f so | licited | me, | f f \ f not | I | 
•7 the I peerage. | 7 f | 7 7 | 

" Nay, 1 I more, | f *J | ^ I | can and | will *j | say f \ f f | 
that, as a | peer of | parliament, | ^ •* | ^ as | speaker | •* of this | 
right I honorable | house, | ^ ^ | ^ as | keeper of the | great ^ | 
seal, •* I •* *f I *1 as | guardian | «f of his | majesty's | con- 
science, j «f ^ I ^ as I Lord | High | Chancellor of | England, | 
«* •* I nay, •* | even in | that | character | ^ a | lone, | •* in | 
which the | noble | Duke •* | •* would | think it an af | front ^ | 
•f to be con | sidered, | ^ but | which | character | none can 
de I ny *j | me, ^ | 7 ^ | as a | Man, ^ | ^ I | am at this | mo- 
ment I as re I spectable, | ^ ^ | ^ I | beg ^ | leave to | add, ^ | 
•7 as I much re | spected, | ^ as the | proudest | peer ^ | ^ I | 
now I look I down upon." | ^ ^ | 

— Lord Thurlow's Reply to the Duke of Grafton. 

" Most I potent, | grave, | ^ and | reverend | signiors, | 
•7 My I very | noble, | ^andap | proved | good | masters; | *fl | 
That I have | taken a | way | ^ this | old man's | daughter, | 



Measure of Speech. 393 

It is I most I true '. | *f *f I true, | •* I have | married her ; | 
•* The I very | head and | front | ^ of my of | fending | 
•J Hath I this ex | tent, | ^ f | no | more. | f *j * *j \ 

Rude I «7 am | I in j my | speech, | 
f And I little | bless'd | *j with the | set | phrase of | peace; | 

77.1 

•f For I since | these | arms of | mine | •* had | seven | years | 

pith, I 
•7 Till I now, I ^ some | nine | moons | wasted, | ^ they have | 

us'd I 
•7 Their | dearest | action | ^ in the | tented | field; | 
•7 And I little | ^ of this | great | world | ^ can | I | speak | 
More than per | tains | «f to | feats of | broil, «* and | battle; | 

•f And, I therefore, | little | •f shall I | grace my | cause, | 
•f In I speaking | •* for my | self: \ *J *j \ yet | ^ by your | pa- 
tience, I 
I will a I round, | ^ un | varnish'd | tale de | liver." | 

— " Othello,'''' Shakespeare. 



Once I more | unto the | breach | dear | friends! | *f *7 | once | 

more ; | *J f \ 
•J Or I close the | wall up | ^ with our | English | dead. | *j^ \ 
•f In I peace \ *1 *1 \ *j there 's | nothing | so be | comes a | 

man | 
•7 As I modest | stillness | ^ and hu | mility. | *j *j \ 
But when the | blast of | war | ^ ^ | blows in our | ears, | 
Then | imitate the | action | ^ of the | tiger : | 
Stiffen the | sinews, | ^ *f | summon | up the | blood, | 
•* Dis I guise | fair | nature | •* with | hard | favor' d | rage. | 

Then | lend the | eye | *f a | terrible | aspect ; | 

*j*j I Let it I pry | ^ thro' the | portage of the | head, | 

Like the | brass | cannon ; | let the | brow o'er | whelm it, | 

•7 As I fearfully, | as doth a | galled rock | f *f \ 

•7 O'er I hang and | jutty | *j his con | founded | base 

f * I Swill'd with the | wild | f and | wasteful | ocean." | f V 

— Address of Henry V to his Troops. 



394 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

" Hail ! | holy | Light, | | offspring of | Heav'n | first | born, | 
| Or of the E | ternal | | co-e | ternal | beam, | 
May I ex | press | thee | un | blam'd? | | ^ Since | God | 

•J is | light. | 
•7 And I never | *j but in | unap | proached | light | 
Dwelt from e | ternity, | | dwelt | then in | thee, | 
I Bright I effluence | ^ of | bright | essence | incre | ate. | 
•7 Or I hears't thou | rather, | | pure e | thereal | stream. | 
•j Whose I fountain | who shall | tell ? | | *J Be | fore the | 

sun, I 
•* Be I fore the | Heav'ns | thou | wert, | | and at the | voice | 
•7 Of I God I I as with a | mantle, | *j didst in | vest | 
*J The I rising | world of | waters | | dark | •* and | deep, | 
Won from the | void | ^ and | formless | infinite." | | 

— " Apostrophe to Light" MlLTON. 

POETIC EXPRESSION IN PROSE. 

"Then | sang | Moses | ^ and the | children of | Israel | this | 
song I •* unto the | Lord, | •* and j spake, | saying, | •* I will | 
sing unto the | Lord, | «* for he hath j triumphed | gloriously: | 
I I •* the I horse | •* and his | rider j •* hath he | thrown into 
the I sea. | | •* The | Lord | •* is my | strength and | song, | 
•7 and j he is be | come my sal | vation; | | he is | my | God, | 
•* and I I will pre | pare him an | habi | tation; | | ^ my | 
father's j God, | *J and | I will ex | alt him. | | | *j The | Lord j 
•* is a I man of | war : | ^ Je | hovah | ^ is his | name. | | | 
Pharaoh's | chariots | •* and his | host | •* hath he | cast into 
the I sea : | | •* his | chosen | captains | also | •* are | drowned 
in the | Red | Sea. | | | •? The | depths | •* have | covered 
them : I I ^ they | sank into the | bottom | ^ as a | stone. | | | 
Thy I right | hand, | O | Lord, | is be | come | glorious in | 
power : I | thy | right | hand, | O | Lord, | •] hath | dashed in j 
pieces | ^ the | enemy. | | | ^ And in the | greatness of thine | 
excellency | thou hast | over | thrown | them | ^ that | rose up 
a I gainst thee ; | | ^ thou | sentest forth thy j wrath, | ^ which 
con I sumed them, | ^ as | stubble. | | | ^ And with the | blast 
of thy I nostrils | ^ the | waters | ^ were | gathered to | gether, 

I •* the I floods I stood | upright | ^ as an | heap, | ^ and 
the j depths | ^ were con | gealed | ^ in the | heart of the | 



Measure of Speech. 395 

sea. I I I ^ The | enemy | said, | I will pur | sue, | I will | 
over I take, | I will di | vide the | spoil ; | ^ my | lust | ^ shall 
be I satisfied | ^ up | on them : | | ^ I will | draw my | sword, | 
•7 my I hand shall des | troy them. | | | Thou didst | blow with 
thy I wind, | ^ the | sea | covered them : | | ^ they | sank as | 
lead I •* in the | mighty | waters." | | | 

— Song of Moses, Exodus xv, i. 

"*j The I armaments, | ^ which | thunderstrike | ^ the | walls | 
•7 Of I rock-built | cities, | | bidding | nations | quake, | 
«jf And I monarchs | | tremble | ^ in their | capitals, | 
I •* The I oak le | viathans, | ^ whose | huge | ribs | make | 
•7 Their | clay ere | ator | ^ the | vain | title | take, | 
•f Of I lord of I thee, | ^ and | arbiter of | war ! | 
These are thy | toys, | | and as the | snowy | flake, | 
•7 They | melt into thy | yeast of | waves, | ^ which | mar | 
•jf A I like the Ar | mada's | pride, | or | spoils of | Trafal- | 

gar. I I 
•y Thy I shores are | empires, | | chang'd in | all | save | 

thee, I 
I •* As I syria, | | Greece, | | Rome, | | Carthage, | | what 

are | they? | 
•7 Thy I waters | wasted them | | while they were | free, | 
I «f And I many a | tyrant | since: | | ^ their | shores | 

•f o I bey I 
•7 The I stranger, | slave, | <K or | savage; | «y their de | cay | 
*j Has I dried up | realms | ^ to | deserts, | | not | so | 

thou, I I 
Un J changeable, | | save to thy | wild | waves | play: | 
Time | writes | no | wrinkle | •* on | thine | azure | brow; | 
I Such as ere | ation's | dawn | •* be | held, | | thou | rollest | 

now. I 
Thou I glorious | mirror, | where the Al | mighty's | form | 
Glasses it | self in I tempests; | ^ in I all | time, | 
Calm I ^ or con | vuls'd, | | ^ in | breeze, | ^ or | gale, | ^ 

or I storm, | 
I Icing the | pole, | or in the | torrid | clime | 
Dark | heaving; | | boundless, | | endless, | | ^ and sub- | 



lime. 



The Ocean,"" Bvron. 



Chapter XXXII. 

Acce7it. 

255. When a word of two or more syllables is pro- 
nounced simply without significance or emotion, there is 
always at least one of the syllables distinguished from the 
others by certain audible means : this distinction constitutes 
accent. 

All syllables are either long (indefinite or mutable), or 
short (immutable) ; the first admitting prolongation of time ; 
the second can not be lengthened without a mispronuncia- 
tion of the syllable or word. 

The syllable of a word can not be given on an interval 
wider than the second without rendering the word in some 
degree significant or expressive; simple accentual distinc- 
tion, then, can not be effected by the employment of 
any of the wider intervals of pitch. But the application 
of force and time, or of stress and quantity, in connection 
with the interval of a second, are the appropriate means of 
accentuation. These elements, when conjoined with this 
interval, are necessarily moderate, and their degree on the 
accented syllable is only relatively greater than that affect- 
ing the other syllables of the word. 

Radical stress, quantity, and the loud concrete are in 
general the means for producing accent on immutable, in- 
definite, and mutable syllables. To illustrate : in the word 
particular, the syllable tic being incapable of extension on 
the concrete, can only be brought under special notice by 
a sharp ictus of radical stress, combined with a discrete 
(396) 



Accent. 397 



rise of a tone. All immutable syllables receive accentual 
distinction in this way, as in the following words : 



Victory, 


Ic'tus, 


Detect 7 , 


Docket, 


Tick'le, 


Pickle, 


Convict 7 , 


Ticket, 


Enact 7 , 


Iterate, 


Picture, 


Ac / tion. 



The word beware' illustrates the application of the temporal 
accent, or that produced by time or quantity. 

Here the accented syllable is indefinite, and receives no 
addition of force to distinguish it from the adjacent sylla- 
bles, but simply a slight extension of time. The greater 
number of indefinite syllables take the temporal accent; of 
such are, 



Ho'ly, 


Glc/rious, 


Doleful, 


Harm / ful, 


NeecPful, 


Groan'ing, 


Baleful, 


PerTume, 


Game'some. 



It will be observed that the syllables not under the 
accent are always more or less slurred, or thrown into com- 
parative insignificance, both as regards force and time, 
whether they be long or short. The word perfume', as a 
verb, is accented on the second syllable, and is extended 
in time; the first syllable is uttered lightly, and with a 
rapid concrete. Let the accent be reversed, as in the noun 
pcr'fmne; the first syllable is pronounced with a clear per- 
cussion ; the second, although retaining its long vowel 
sound, will be very lightly and quickly uttered. 

256. The loud concrete may be employed to accent such 
words as beg'ging, Godly, etc., in which the syllables are of 
sufficient length to obviate the necessity of the radical per- 
cussion to give them accentual prominence. This, how- 
ever, may be added to the loud concrete in accenting 
mutable syllables. The accent of the radical stress is not, 
then, confined to immutable syllables, nor the loud con- 
crete to mutable. 



398 Murdoch' s Elocution. 

Radical stress may be given on a syllable of long quan- 
tity, as in the word to'tal, while many long syllables, having 
the temporal accent, unite with it the force of the loud 
concrete, as in the words revenge?, anoint', lo'cal, doleful, 
revolution, etc. In the last instance, the indefinite sylla- 
ble lu makes a radical descent of a tone from the line of 
the other syllables. This difference of a tone in radical 
pitch, either rising or falling, often aids in effecting the 
accentual impression. 

Accent may thus be defined as the fixed but inexpres- 
sive distinction of one syllable from the rest, in every word 
of two or more syllables, by the moderate application of 
force or time, or of both, in connection with the interval 
of a simple second. 

257. In the ordinary treatment of accent, it is resolved 
into mere force, but, we have seen, it is by no means de- 
pendent on this element alone; in fact, the most frequent 
form of accent is the temporal, as in English words the 
accented syllables are generally the longest. 

Accent is the source of much variety in speech, and 
forms, when adjusted in accordance with the law of organic 
action, the measure of rhythmus of both poetry and prose. 

When a word is invested with some particular signifi- 
cance of meaning in its relation to other words, it becomes 
emphatic, and requires some more prominent display of 
force or other vocal elements than are employed to produce 
simple accentual distinction. This display, however, is 
always effected on the accentual syllable, which may, there- 
fore, be regarded as the seat of life; in a word, emphasis 
may be said to occasionally enforce or adorn the accent, 
when the word to which it belongs is used to convey a par- 
ticular meaning in its relation to thought or passion. 



Chapter XXXIII. 
Emphasis. 

258. Emphasis is the distinctive utterance of one or 
more words, by means of which they are made to impress 
the hearer with the full effect of their various degrees and 
peculiarities of meaning. The word emphasis means, liter- 
ally, "speaking into," and implies a recognition of that 
power which spoken language or true eloquence possesses, 
of entering into both ear and mind, or heart, as occasion 
requires. 

As accent acts among syllables, so emphasis acts among 
words, the former serving to give distinctness and unity to 
words, the latter to give distinctness and unity to the 
thoughts or emotions of sentences, by pointing out and en- 
forcing the peculiar meaning of many of the words which 
compose them. 

Emphasis may, then, be regarded as the peculiar distinc- 
tion of individual words, for the purpose of enforcing their 
thought and passion through the agency of the more im- 
pressive of the vocal elements, comprehended under the 
several heads of pitch, time, force, quality, etc., or of their 
combinations. 

The object of emphasis being to elevate words into im- 
portance, it may be applied throughout the current of lan- 
guage to single words, as they stand related in sense to 
several words in succession; or it may be employed on 
solitary interjections; or on one or two words forming an 
exclamation, for the purpose of enforcing their sentiment 

or passion. 

(399) 



4-00 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

259. It now remains to inquire what gives a word em- 
phatic value, or what constitutes its claim to emphasis or 
unusual distinction. 

First. — Words are emphatic when they possess a mean- 
ing which points out or distinguishes something as distinct 
or opposite to some other thing. This opposition consti- 
tutes an antithesis, which may be either expressed or un- 
derstood. As an example of the antithesis expressed, we 
have the following couplet from Pope : 

" 'T is hard to say, if greater lack of skill 
Appears in writing, or in judging ill." 

Writing and judging are both emphatical, standing directly 
contrasted. An antithesis understood is exemplified by the 
following : 

"Approach, and read, for thou canst read, the lay, 
Grav'd on the stone, beneath yon aged thorn." 

Here the words thou canst are emphatical, as they are 
opposed to / can not, which are understood. In some 
cases, the antithesis is not so obvious, as in the following, 
in which Marcus Brutus, in Addison's " Cato, ,} expresses 
his indignation at the behavior of Caesar : 

"I am tortured even to madness, when I think 
Of the proud victor." 

That is, not only when I hear and speak of him, but 
even when I think of him. Also, in the following lines: 

"'Twas base and poor, unworthy of a man, 
To forge a scroll so villainous and loose, — 
And mark it with a noble lady's name." 



Emphasis. 401 



Here the antithesis to man understood is some baser 
creature. That is, it might be worthy of some baser 
creature, but not of a manly man. 

260. Whenever the contrariety or antithesis is expressed, 
we have no difficulty in knowing which are the emphatic 
words, but when it is only understood, it is more difficult to 
distinguish. The best means of determining the emphasis 
in such sentences, is to take the word we suppose to be 
emphatic, and try whether it will admit of those words 
being supplied which an emphasis on it would suggest. 
If we find that this paraphrasing the sentence serves to 
bring the meaning out clearly, as it seems to be intended 
by the author, we may be sure the emphasis is well 
placed. 

We may, then, take this as a general rule: Whenever 
words are contrasted with, contradistinguished from, or op- 
posed to, other words, they are always emphatical; empha- 
sis through antithesis is the most frequent form. 

Antithetic emphasis is called single when a contrast is 
limited to two points, thus : 

"You were paid to fight Alexander, not to rail at him." 

It becomes double or triple emphasis when the contrasts 
are double or triple, as in the following examples : 

"I would rather be the first man in that village, 
Than the second in J?ome." 

"He raised a mortal to the skies. 
She drew an angel down.'''' 

The emphasis of an expressed antithesis is never so 
strong as that of an antithesis understood, because, in the 
latter case, the point unexpressed is only made obvious by 
the strong enforcement of its contrary expressed, which 
seems to suggest it. 

M. E.— 34. 




402 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 

Second. — Words may also be emphatic when they express 
strong emotion, or enforce an idea which does not imply 
contrast, but in which the "peculiar eminence of the 
thought is solely considered." Of these, we have examples 
in all strong interjections or exclamations, as in the follow- 
ing examples, the appropriate expression of which has been 
already described: 

"Ye Gods! ye Gods, must I endure all this!" 

" Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" 

261. We also have innumerable instances of the absolute 
emphasis in words used to announce, designate, or partic- 
ularize a subject, as thus : 

"Well, honor is the subject of my story!" 

"It is my design to give an account of the Italian Opera, and of 
the progress it has made upon the English stage." 

There are also many words with simply more than an 
ordinary meaning, used to state, modify, qualify, etc., 
which do not suggest contrast, and which yet demand a 
certain amount of vocal coloring. 

Third. — Emphasis may be used to supply an ellipsis, and 
complete to the ear the grammatical construction, or to 
suggest other words, the meaning of which is implied as 
belonging to the sense of the word to be emphasized. In 
this case, the emphasis, by the peculiar significance it gives 
the word, colors it or charges it, as it were, with the sig- 
nificance of those the mind would supply in paraphrasing 
to develop the meaning. Thus, in the admiring exclama- 
tion of Hamlet : 

" What a piece of work is a man ! " 



Emphasis. 403 



The word what should, by strong or proper emphasis, 

express the additional meaning of the word wonderful, and 
the sentence paraphrased would read thus : 

" What a wonderful piece of work is a man ! " 
Examples of ellipsis : 

God knows when we shall meet again. 
God only knozvs if we shall ever meet again. 

By proper emphasis, the words omitted are, by strong 
suggestion, in the peculiar mode employed, brought before 
the mind. 

Fourth. — Words become emphatic when they are used to 
mark the syntactical relations that are somewhat obscured 
by intervening words or clauses. In the following lines 
from Collins's " Ode to the Passions" the words in italics 
receive emphasis to mark their grammatical relationship : 

" When cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, 
Her bow across her shoulder flung, 
Her buskins gemmed with morning dew, 
Blew an inspiring air, — that dale and thicket rung, 
The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known." 

Here the phrases inspiring air, and hunter's call, are in 
apposition; but there is an intervening clause, the verb of 
which might seem to take call as its object. To avoid a 
reading that would put this construction upon the language 
hunter 's call, and the phrase with which it is so closely re- 
lated must both be emphasized. In this case, the second 
phrase seems to refer the ear back to the former, and thus 
to preserve the connection. 



404 Murdochs Elocution. 

In the following lines of Byron, we find the same neces- 
sity for an emphatic connection : 

"And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, 
Back to the joyous Alps, that call to her aloud." 

These words or phrases occur between words forming 
what is termed the emphatic tie. Rush speaks of them as 
"the flight of the voice." They are rendered parenthetic 
by being given in more rapid movement, lower pitch, and 
monotone : 

" There was a Brutus once that would have brooked 
(The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome) 
As easily | as a king." 

In the parenthesis we have the flight ; brooked as easily is 
the emphatic tie. 

Fifth. — When several words in succession require em- 
phasis, they form what is called an emphatic phrase. 
These, when repeated, are called cumulative emphasis. We 
have examples of the emphatic phrase in the lines already 
quoted to illustrate the appealing question : 

"Judge me, ye Gods! Wrong I mine enemies? 
And if not so, how could I wrong my brotlier ? " 

"What man could do 
Is done already, Heaven and earth will witness, 
Jf Rome must fall, that we are innocent." 

"There was a time, then, my fellow citizens, when the Lacedae- 
monians were sovereign masters both by sea and land, when their 
troops and forts surrounded the entire circuit of Attica, while this 
state had not one ship, not one wall." 

262. To sum up the preceding view of the several cir- 
cumstances or conditions demanding emphasis, we have the 
following : 



Emphasis. 405 



1. The Emphasis of Antithesis, which enforces the 
thoughts or passions of words through contrast. 

2. Absolute Emphasis, or the enforcement of thought or 
passion on one word or a succession of words, from their 
own peculiar expressive character, independent of any con- 
trast with, or opposition to, other words. 

3. Emphasis of Ellipsis, which enforces a word for the 
purpose of supplying the meaning of others omitted in the 
construction. 

4. The Emphatic Tie, which distinguishes certain words 
for the purpose of connecting them upon the ear, to point 
out their grammatical relations where the syntax is obscure. 

To these may be added : 

The Emphatic Phrase, which enforces the thought or 
passion of several words in close succession in a phrase or 
clause. 

263. Emphasis should not be too frequent, nor too pre- 
cise in detail, — in striving to particularize too much, the 
general effect of significance is weakened. A proper ob- 
servation of the necessity of superior and inferior, as regards 
the object in the presentation of thought or passion by the 
agency of words, will lead us to select the important from 
the unimportant, and thus help the ear and the mind to 
perceive the real meaning of the language. In order to 
arrive at a just employment of emphasis, we must, then, 
consider the relative value of all words composing language 
comprehended under the following threefold division : 

1. Unaccented. 

2. Accented. 

3. Emphatic. 

In almost every sentence there are certain words which 
receive no more vocal acknowledgment than the unac- 
cented syllables of polysyllabic words, unless they have 
some unusual or peculiar significance, and, when uttered in 
connexion with a word bearing an accent, can not be dis- 



'406 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 

tinguished by the ear from the unaccented syllables of that 
word. 

To this class of words belong all conjunctions: as, and, 
but, or, if, etc.; the articles the, an, a; all prepositions, as 
for, from, with, in; the verb to be, throughout its modifi- 
cations; and the pronominal adjectives my, his, her, our, 
some, etc.; also, personal and relative pronouns, such as 
/, thou, which, who, that, etc., when employed for words 
understood between the speaker and hearer. In fine, all 
such words as merely connect sentences, denote ordinary 
relations, express simple existence, and qualify other words, 
without adding a new idea. These words have been called 
enclitics, — "hooked on" to others. To illustrate, take the 
following sentence as a plain statement of fact : 

" Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent." 

And, if correctly pronounced, it will sound as if it con- 
tained five polysyllabic words, as follows : 

"Censure is — the — tax', a — man — pays', to — the — public, for — 
being — eminent. ' ' 

Although no words in this sentence are emphatic, still 
those marked with the accent, tax, pays, etc., receive a 
certain distinction from the other words sinking into the 
same obscurity as the unaccented syllables. If these link 
words, however, were given an equal degree of vocal value 
with the accented words, we should find that the sentence 
would lack that light and shade which is necessary to 
convey a clear picture of the thought. 

Besides words which are emphatic from some peculiarity 
of meaning, there are, then, always many superior, through 
accent alone, to the particles and similarly obscure words. 
In the plainest utterance of thought, therefore, there are 
differences in the values of words, which subordinate some 



Emphasis, 407 



and elevate others into a certain prominence in con- 
trast. 

264. The student must not, then, in his study of empha- 
sis, confound the distinction between words which take 
vocal prominence from a peculiarity of meaning, and those 
which have distinction from only a general or ordinary 
meaning, or more meaning than the particles, connections, 
etc., for it must be borne in mind that there is a certain 
force of meaning inherent in the simple verbal forms of the 
substantives, verbs, and other important parts of speech, 
sufficient to declare, when related in sentences, the ordi- 
nary sense of language, without recourse to peculiar sig- 
nificance in sound. 

The first degree of distinction, then, between words in 
sentences, arises from the importance of the nouns, verbs, 
etc., over particles and unimportant words. This distinc- 
tion naturally takes place on a large proportion of words 
in every ordinary sentence. 

It will also be found that in all cases the accented words 
attract to them the unaccented words, either preceding or 
following, most intimately related in sense, thus forming 
what to the ear appears like one long word. Groups of 
words thus related have been termed oratorical portions of 
a sentence, or "oratorical words." Thus: 

" He ofFers — me some — advice 7 which — he — believes 7 to — be — 
good 7 ." 

I — have — seen 7 — him and — I — think 7 — he — corresponds 7 with — 
the — description. 

Let — us — proceed 7 by — recollection. 

265. Before passing to that distinction of words called 
properly emphatic, I wish to direct the attention to the fact 
that, in the utterance of all language, words which repre- 



408 Murdochs Elocution. 

sent ideas or things with which the hearer is supposed to 
be acquainted are not naturally the object of communica- 
tion, and are, therefore, always expressed by such a sub- 
ordination of effect as is suitable to mark them, rather as 
an allusion to an idea understood, than as the presentation 
of a new idea. 

On the other hand, those things of which our hearers are 
not fully informed, or which they might possibly miscon- 
ceive, are brought into such prominence as makes it im- 
possible for the hearer to overlook or mistake them. If, 
then, any part of speech in a sentence is understood be- 
tween the hearer and speaker, or in apposition with some- 
thing preceding or understood, it loses its ordinary value 
and falls into comparative obscurity or insignificance. This, 
of course, does not hold when a word is repeated to en- 
force the idea, as in the sentence : 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you." 

With this understanding, we will next consider emphatic 
words. Taking the sentence : 

"Exercise and temperance strengthen the constitution," 

We would have four "oratorical words," accentual only, 
thus : 

" Ex'ercise and — tem / perance strengthen the — constitution." 

But if the sentence be as follows : 

"Exercise aud temperance strengthen even an indifferent consti- 
tution," 

The word indifferent, from its peculiar meaning, becomes 
emphatic, and is raised above the level of the merely ac- 
centual words of the sentence. Now, as accented words 




Emphasis. 409 



possess the power to attract the connections, etc. , that are 
most closely related to them, so emphatic words possess the 
same attractive power for accented words that are inti- 
mately connected with them, and are similarly subordi- 
nate. 

Thus it is, in the preceding sentence, with the word con- 
stitution, which, while it does not become so obscure as the 
unaccented words and syllables, is much less prominent 
than the other accented words of the sentence, and bears 
the relation of a sort of secondary accent to the emphatic 
oratorical word. This point is farther illustrated by the 
following sentence : 

Avaro — covets— wealth and — not — learning. 

The point of the statement is the preference of Avaro — 
not that he covets — that being implied by the preference ex- 
pressed — but that he covets — wealth. The verb covets, 
therefore, from its subordinate significance in the sentence, 
takes the rank of the secondary accent in the oratorical 
word, similarly to the noun constitution in the preceding 
sentence. Thus, the sentence given would read as follows : 

"Exercise and — temperance strengthen even — an — indifferent — 
constitution." 

This sentence exhibits the threefold distinction as to the 
relative value of words. A word either preceding or fol- 
lowing an emphatic word is apt to be, through the very 
import of the emphasis, in a measure understood, and is, 
therefore, thrown into comparative obscurity. 

266. In very strong emphasis, there may be a secondary 
emphasis in the oratorical word, which has a positive em- 
phatic value of its own, and which yet is so closely related 
and subordinated to the stronger as to be attracted to it, 
into one group. In this case, however, the relative values 

M. E.— 35. 



4io Murdoch's Elocution. 

remain in about the same proportion as before. This is 
exemplified in the following passionative lines : 

"If — thou — dost — slander — ^r and torture — me, never — pray 
more." 

Again, words that do not represent an idea supplied by 
the emphasis, retain, in connection with the emphatic 
word, their full accentual value, as in the instance of the 
noun rage in the following lines from Pope's Prologue to 
" Cato," arranged here according to the explanations 
already given : 

" Brit 7 ons, attend 7 ! Be — worth 7 like — this approved 7 , 
And — show 7 you — have — the — vir 7 tue to — be — moved 7 . 
With — honest scorn the—; first — famed — Cato — viewed 
Rome learning — arts 7 from — Greece 7 , whom — she — subdued 7 ; 
Our 7 — scene precariously subsists 7 too 7 long 7 
On — French translation, and — Italian song'", 
Dare 7 to — have — sense — yourselves assert 7 the — stage; 
Be — justly warm'd 7 with — your — own 7 native — rage; 
Such 7 — plays alone 7 should — please 7 a — British — ear, 
As — Cato's self had — not disdained 7 to — hear 7 ." 

The words marked with the accent are of about equal 
relative value, — accentual. Honest scorn is expressive, ex- 
pressing an implied antithesis (viewed not only with dislike, 
but scorn). The word first is also emphatic, pointing out 
Cato, the Censor, in opposition to Cato, the hero of the 
Prologue. Yourselves is strongly emphatic, as opposed to 
others understood. The word native is highly emphatic, as 
opposed to foreign understood. But rage is too significant 
a word to be lightly pronounced, and takes color from 
native. Walker says, "If we pronounce the accented sylla- 
ble stronger, the unaccented will be strong likewise;" e. g., 
11 Forward, the Light Brigade." Here ward borrows force 
from For, and it becomes an oratorical word. 



Emphasis. 4 1 1 



267. The relation of the emphatic words to others of 
lesser value is further illustrated by the following extract 
from a speech of Lord Mansfield's, arranged in the same 
manner as the preceding : 

" I — am — sure 7 , were — the — noble — Lords 7 as — well — acquainted 
as — / — am with — but — half— the — difficulty and— delays — occasioned 
in — the — courts 7 of justice under — the — pretence 7 of privilege, 
they — would — not, nay 7 , they — could — not oppose this bill." 

Here, it will be seen, the emphatic word well naturally 
attracts the word acquainted, the latter being in a sense 
understood ; while half attracts difficulty in the same way, 
in addition to the several intimately related monosyllables, 
making an oratorical word of eight syllables. Delays is em- 
phatic, meaning not only difficulties (understood) but also 
delays. The italics indicate emphasis, while the simple 
accent shows that the remaining oratorical words are 
simply the accentual groups of the plain current of speech. 
The last three words are instances of what are called simple 
oratorical words; i. e., having no enclitics. This arises 
here from the balance of value being about equal between 
the words, each having an individual importance not to be 
yielded to either of the others. The preceding examples 
will show how comparatively few words in the current of 
ordinary discourse become positively emphatic. 

268. In the language of strong passion, the frequency 
of emphasis is of course increased proportionally to the 
increased excitement in the state of mind, which naturally 
enforces a greater number of words. Thus, in the follow- 
ing instances of highly impassioned language, the emphasis 
falls frequently, as : 

"Back to — thy — punishment, false — fugitive, and — to — thy — 
speed add — wings." 

" Whence and — what art — thou execrable — shape." 



412 Murdoch's Elocution. 

" If — thou — dost — slander her, and — torture — me, 
Never pray more : abandon — all — remorse ; 
On — horror's — head horrors accumulate; 
Do — deeds — to — make — heaven — weep, all — earth — amaz\l, 
For — nothing — canst — thou to — damnation — add, 
Greater — than — that. ' ' 

269. Such a treatment of language as is here described, 
not only facilitates the vocal presentation of its meaning, 
by preserving those correct proportions as to gi-eater and 
less in the value of words, by which the thought or passion 
is made to stand out clearly to the mind, but also, by 
affording constant opportunities for pauses between the ora- 
torical words, it places them more strikingly upon the ear, 
adding at the same time to the ease of delivery by allowing 
for constant recovery of the breath. 

Every strongly emphatic oratorical word, in fact, de- 
mands a pause as an organic necessity, arising from the 
necessary expenditure of breath on a collection of sounds, 
one of which, at least, is forcible. For this reason, in- 
deed, emphasis may be considered the key to pausing in sen- 
tences. See *f[ 200. 

Unless language is very rapid, and in many of the words 
slurred, as in conversation, the accentual portions of a 
sentence generally demand a brief pause, also, as in the 
following emphasis: 

" Avaro, 
I who — is— a — miser, | wishes — for — wealth 
I and — large— possessions." 

Sometimes, however, in more familiar utterance, two 
oratorical portions will be thrown together between a pause 
with much the effect of two accents. To illustrate : 

" I — will — cer'tainly — wait 7 — on — you [| at — an — early — opportunity." 



Emphasis. 4 1 3 



270. Emphasis proper is to be regarded as the extraordi- 
nary enforcement of the thought or passion of words by 
the more marked degrees of stress, wider intervals, extended 
waves, and peculiar qualities of voice, for the purpose of 
expressing strong contradistinction or impressive degrees of 
emotion, etc. 

Accentual Emphasis, on the other hand, will be the term 
applied to that moderate distinction of syllables effected 
by the extension of the temporal accent on the wave of 
the second, accompanied with that form of median stress 
called the temporal pressure, or by the final pressure on 
the interval or wave of a second, or by a clear, but not 
forcible, radical stress; — all of which give words a dis- 
tinctive character, without suggesting an antithesis or indi- 
cating any peculiar or significant meaning. 

Although the simple accentuation of words, as they 
stand disconnected from other words as the verbal signs of 
isolated ideas, is effected only by the radical stress, the 
loud concrete, and the slight temporal extension on the 
wave of the second, still the accentuation of words in con- 
nected discourse may, by means of final stress, in connec- 
tion with the simple second or its waves, fulfill the 
demands of expressive vocal coloring without passing 
beyond accentual limits, or the limits of moderation and 
dignity of the diatonic melody. 

A good example of the merely accentual emphasis is 
exhibited on the line from Byron used to illustrate variety 
in stress. See ^[225. The analysis of the constituents of 
this emphasis is there explained. 

" Roll on, thou — deep and — dark blue ocean, roll.' 1 '' 

271. Expressed antithesis often requires no more than 
accentual distinction, as in the following : 

Prosperity — gains — friends, but — adversity tries them." 



414 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Here, friends and them both belong to the class of words 
understood, and fall into a subordinate position; gains and 
tries form with them simply an accentual word, with the 
temporal distinction on the first syllable. 

272. Marking every important word in a sentence as 
strongly emphatical, and bringing the unaccented words 
into undue prominence, is the cause of that unnatural 
mouthing of language so offensive to good taste, which, 
while it gives a bombastic and turgid character to common 
words, lessens the attention to those which really deserve 
extraordinary distinction. 

Morever, the effort to be too significant or impressive, 
not only wearies the ear, but often misleads the under- 
standing by suggesting contrasts not intended, and ideas 
not to be implied, for, where emphasis does not aid in develop- 
ing the meaning, it generally vitiates or distorts it. 

On the other hand, the connectives and other obscure 
words, where correctly pronounced, serve as the neutral 
background, as it were, to accentual distinctions, while 
both these and the accentual words form the less vivid color 
against which the striking effects of emphasis are brought 
into strong relief. 



Examples of Emphasis Classified according to their 
Predominant Elements of Effect. 

bold, imperative shouting. 



< To arms ! to arms ! to arms ! 
they cry." 

Awake ! awake ! 
Ring the alarm bell : — Murder 
and treason ! " 



Quality, full orotund. 
Force, — impassioned, very loud. 
Pitch,— high. 
Movement, — quick. 
Stress, — thorough. 
Intervals, — wide and unequal 
waves. 



Emphasis. 



4^5 



REVENGE. 



Had all his hairs been lives, 

my great revenge 
Had stomach in them all." 

Oh that the slave had forty 

thousand lives! 
One is too poor, too weak for 

my revenge ! " 



Quality, — intensely aspirated oro- 
tund. 

Force, — fiercely impassioned. 

Pitch, — low. 

Movement, — slow. 

Stress, — vanishing. 

Intervals, — downward fifths and 
octaves. 



SORROW. 



Thy sad, sweet hymn at eve, 

the seas along, — 
Oh ! the deep soul it breathed ! 

the love, the woe, 
The fervor, poured in that full 

gush of song! " 



Quality, — pure orotund. 
Force, — subd ued. 
Pitch, — low. 
Movement, — slow. 
Stress, — median. 

Intervals, — s e m i t o n i c , with 
waves. 



ECSTATIC JOY. 



Shout, shout around me ! 
Let me hear thy shout, 
Thou happy shepherd boy ! " 



Quality, — pure orotund. 
Force, — impassioned, shouting. 
Pitch,— high. 
Movement, — lively. 
Stress, — loud concrete. 
Intervals, — wide waves and 
tremor. 



SIMPLE NARRATIVE. 



Lord Ronald brought a lily 

white doe 
To give his cousin, Lady Clare." 



Quality, — natural. 

Force, — light. 

Pitch, — middle. 

Movement, — moderate. 

Stress, — unimpassioned radical. 

Diatonic melody. 



416 



Murdoch's Elocution. 



WRATH, OR FIERCE ANGER. 



Back ! to thy punishment, false 
fugitive ! " 

Out, dunghill ! dar'st thou brave 
a nobleman ? " 



Quality, — harsh aspirated oro- 
tund. 

Force, — impassioned, very loud. 

Pitch, — low, as in deep and in- 
tense emotion. 

Movement, — quick, as in intense 
anger. 

Stress, — radical impassioned, 
fiercest form. 

Intervals, — bold, downward. 



AWE. 



! My heart is awed within me, 
when I think 

Of the great miracle that still 
goes on 

In silence round me : — the per- 
petual work 

Of thy creation, finished yet 
renewed forever! " 



Quality, — orotund, lightly aspi- 
rated. 

Force, — subdued, by deep emo- 
tion. 

Pitch, — very low, as in profound 
yet tranquil emotion. 

Stress, — median. 

Intervals, — prevalent downward, 
and waves of a second. 

Movement, — very slow. 



Every selection should be carefully analyzed, as in the 
preceding studies, with reference to the movements of the 
voice to be employed. For exercises in emphasis, refer 
to passages in Force, and its different degrees, — Stress, 
Quality, etc. 

273. The difficulty does not, as a general thing, lie so 
much with readers or speakers in the placing of their 
emphasis, as in the unvaried employment of some partic- 
ular means for all cases. Many persons, for example, 
either hammer or puncture every emphatic word with a 



Emphasis, 4 1 7 



sharp radical stress, thus annihilating both beauty and pro- 
priety in expression. In fact, the idea so generally obtains 
that emphasis is force, or stress alone, that the claims of 
quantity as the other great essential in distinction is too 
often ignored. 

The beauty as well as the utility of emphasis must be 
considered by the artistic reader; therefore, variety in the 
forms of emphatic distinction, obtained through the use, 
not only of stress, but of time, quality, and intonation, or 
of their several combinations, should be a primary consid- 
eration in seeking to obtain agreeable and natural effects ; 
while gradation in degree, according as the thought, senti- 
ment, or passion shall call for the greater or less enforce- 
ment, is the other great point of effect to be held in view 
in the application of this vivifying principle. 

274. As a further illustration that the words not under 
the accent bear the same relation to the sentence with the 
unaccented syllables of single words, we will find that the 
sounds of their elements are affected in the same manner. 
Thus, in the following example, 

He — offers me some — advice which — he — believes to — be — good, 

e, in me, is as unprotracted a sound as e in devout. 

Many words suffer a similar corruption of their vowel 
sounds from distinct to obscure, as in the case of the un- 
accented syllables of many single words pointed out in the 
preceding reference. Of this class ,are of, and, the, from, 
them, can, are, shall, etc. Others again retain the distinct 
sounds of their vowels, although uttered with the rapid 
concrete of similar unaccented syllables; of such are by, 
my, thy, it, you, your, he, me, she, etc. 

In extremely colloquial utterance, even some of the 
distinct sounds here named become obscure, as in my, you, 
your, which become respectively almost like the sound of 



418 Murdoch's Elocution. 

y, in dainty, ye the same as the not preceding a vowel, 
("an indefinite sound," says Smart, "not to be specified 
on paper,") and yer in lawyer. 

The discretion of the speaker will lead him to proper 
variations in familiar conversation. In enforcing too great 
nicety or precision in articulation, the unaccented syllables 
of words, and unaccented monosyllables, are apt to be 
given undue distinctness, and thereby raised above their 
proper vocal value in the word or sentence, thus produc- 
ing pedantry or mouthing. 

The following stanza sometimes is effective in drawing 
attention to the prominence often given the unimportant 
words : 

"The current is oft evinced by straws, 

And the course of the wind by the flight of a feather; 
So a speaker is known by his ands and his ors, 
These stitches that fasten his patchwork together." 

"The sounds of all the vowels of unaccented and short sylla- 
bles," says Webster, "are so nearly alike that it must be a nice 
ear which distinguishes the difference in the last syllable of such 
words as altar, alter, murmur, manor, manner, satyr, etc. In words 
of this class, if the accent is laid on the proper syllable, and the 
vowel of that syllable properly pronounced, the pronunciation of 
the word will doubtless be correct." 

The same may be said to apply to the oratorical word, 
whether formed by accent or emphasis. In the attempt to 
utter with distinctness all the syllables of the language, the 
articulation is sometimes allowed to interfere with the 
natural pulsation and remiss action of the organs. See 
*H 243. This is, in many cases, due to the imperfect 
manner in which the phonic system is taught. I call 
especial attention to this, not to depreciate the value of 
articulative distinctness, but to warn the pupil against 
sacrificing the natural attributes of our tongue, existing in 



Emphasis. 419 



accent and measure, to an undue enforcement of articulative 
precision, a tendency towards which exists in the exagger- 
ated pronunciation, now much in vogue, of such words as 
actor, educator, etc., which gives the unaccented and 
naturally obscure sound of the final syllable almost the 
same vocal prominence as the syllable rightfully bearing the 
accent.* 



• For further studies in emphasis and expression, the student is 
referred to '■''Revision of Vocal Culture,'''' by Rev. F. T. Russell, 
also to " Hill's Essay on the Dramatic Passions," to be found in 
the author's " Plea for Spoken Language." 



Chapter XXXIV. 
Interjections and Exclamatory Sentences. 

275. Interjections or exclamations may be said to con- 
stitute an epitome of all expression, as they compress into 
a single word or phrase all, and sometimes more than all, 
of the meaning, force, and impressiveness that could be 
conveyed by the merely literal character of an entire sen- 
tence. Indeed, many interjections and exclamations may 
be regarded as elliptical sentences, — the ellipsis being the 
effect of a quick and forcible expression of feeling or 
passion which does not wait for literal words, but vocally 
concentrates the meaning and force of the words omitted 
upon the brief utterance. They are the nearest approach 
in speech to the natural inarticulate language of man.* 

There may be as many kinds of interjections and excla- 
mations as there are modes of feeling and passion ; thus, 
they may be said to cover the entire gamut of expression, 
every mental energy and passion being illustrated by their 
various uses in composition. They may be found in all 
outbursts of joy, grief, rage, hatred, love, fear, terror, etc. , 
as Of Alas! Alack! Mercy! O God! Heavenly powers ! 
Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Help! help! 
Ho! Look! Lo! Behold! Save me! 

Nothing will better serve to illustrate the aggregation of 
the several elements of expression in producing one effect 



*See Interjectional Theory of Language, author's "Plea for 
Spoken Language" 
(420) 



Interjections and Exclamations. 421 

than a study of exclamations. One element, it is true, 
may, by its dominant character, usurp the attention by its 
prominence to the ear, producing the prevailing effect in 
appropriate utterance. 

276. Thus, force, pitch, time, and quality, the prime char- 
acteristics of all effective speech, may be heard in one 
combined effort of impassioned utterance, as in the imper- 
ative exclamation of irresistible authority and fierce pas- 
sion, in the word "Begone!" uttered by an enraged 
superior to an irritating inferior. In this single word, as it 
bursts upon the ear, we have a combination of all the 
effects of loud or extreme force, low pitch, wide downward 
interval, prolonged time, thorough, radical, or final stress, 
and orotund quality. All of these functions of voice are 
blended in the utterance of the single word, or, rather, in 
its accented syllable; and the effect produced upon the ear 
depends on the combination of all these vocal agents, 
melted and welded into one lava mass of passion. 

The voice, impelled by the moving power of mind, in- 
stigated by one burst of emotion, sends the whole mass of 
conglomerated elements compressed into one syllabic utter- 
ance, as a weapon hurled at the offender. He who dis- 
charges it, acts under the influence of an instinct which 
makes him deal his verbal blow in the spirit which Milton 
attributes to his angel champion in combat, swaying his 
sword for the blow "which should not need repeat." 

A similar instance of the powerfully emphatic character 
of a single exclamation is to be found in the authoritative 
command of Othello, uttered to part the combatants en- 
gaged in the lawless brawl : 

" Hold ! on your lives ! " 

Here it is not alone the mere loudness of the word 
Hold! which gives it commanding power, but an explosive 
opening, wide, down-sweeping intonation, and bold, round, 



422 Murdoch's Elocution. 

orotund quality, the natural voice of military authority. 
The emphasis of expression, in this case, is nothing less 
than the union of all these elements of utterance. If even 
a single one of them be omitted, the expressive result is 
defective and unnatural. The genuine burst of strong 
emotion instinctively demands the union of all its audible 
effects in one thunder tone of utterance, which overpowers 
the ear, quells the heart, and compels obedience. 

277. As exclamations are usually forcible expressions of 
emotions, they are best expressed by the downward 
intonation, either concrete or discrete, or in waves termi- 
nating downward, still some of the lighter and more ad- 
mirative forms of exclamation may be executed on the 
rising intervals. 

The wide discrete descent would take place on such 
words as Shocking! Bitter! Wretched! Hateful! when 
uttered as impassioned exclamations. 

The moderate temper of the sentiment expressed in the 
following exclamation might take the form of a downward 
interval, or direct wave of the second, third, or, if more 
plaintive, of the semitone: 

" O withered truth ! " 

As the downward intervals are the appropriate intonation 
of strong exclamatory emotion or emphasis, expressive of 
surprise, wonder, fear, distress, deep sorrow, so the up- 
ward movements are often used to express the tender, 
pathetic, and joyous emotions, as in the following expres- 
sion of joyous thanksgiving : 

"< Great GodP she cried, 'he's safe! the battle's won!'" 
" God be praised! the march of Havelock ! " 

The shortest exclamation, like the shortest interrogative 
sentences, consists of a monosyllabic word, and this may 



Interjections and Exclamations. 423 

be almost any part of speech, excepting, perhaps, the 
article, preposition, or conjunction. This serves to set the 
power of vocal expression in the strongest light, for it 
seems to produce almost the effect of speaking without 
words. From the monosyllable, the exclamation varies in 
extent through all degrees of ellipsis to the full syntax of a 
sentence, though few sentences are not abridged by the 
intensity of concentrated passion. 

The utterance of emotional language of an intense char- 
acter is one of the most effective means of securing that 
union of force and precision of articulation which all im- 
passioned expression requires. The combination of intense 
force and exact articulation serves to give life and charac- 
ter to sentiment by giving keen edge to language as the 
instrument of thought and feeling. This effect we find to 
be greatly heightened when the expression of emotion is, 
as it were, interpreted by the very sound of the component 
elements of words as they strike upon the ear. Hence, 
the effect of the explosive utterance and aspirated charac- 
ter of such interjections as Bah, so expressive of ridicule 
and contempt. Pah! of disgust. Pooh! of contempt. 
Hah! of startling surprise. Tut! and Pshaw! of impa- 
tience. 

278. The following exercises will, therefore, be of two- 
fold value to the student, and should be carefully practiced 
with every form of expression of which they are capable, 
and which their various verbal forms indicate as appro- 
priate. For example, the simple exclamation Ha! may 
be varied through every form of expression of which lan- 
guage is capable. Interrogation, surprise, acquiescence, 
love, hate, aversion, terror, fear, amazement, etc. 

The student's knowledge of the elements of expression, 
already studied in detail, must guide him in adapting the 
single words, and those of the exclamatory sentences 
given, to their appropriate forms of utterance. 



424 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Interjections. 

Interjections are monosyllabic in form, and spontaneous : 
they burst instantaneously from the organs. They should 
be practiced on the concrete intervals of all degrees, and 
on the waves, as in Chapter VII. Then in different de- 
grees of force, in heavily aspirated or orotund qualities, 
also in slow and rapid movement: Hold! Ho! Hail! 
Halt! Hush! Behold! Lo! See! Hist! Fire! Look! 

In contempt, we have: Pshaw! Pish! Pugh! Fie! 
Foh! Faugh! Tush! Tut! Fudge! Bah! 

In rejecting, we find: Away! Begone! Avast! Avaunt! 
Quit my sight! Go! Hence! 

The simple ejaculations may be given in different emo- 
tions : O! Oh! Ah! Ha! Aha! Alas! Alaek! Oh, ho I 
Mum! Hey-day! Heigh-ho! Hoity, toity! Heavens! Good 
Heavens! Gracious goodness! He7?i! Silence! Peace! Cour- 
age! Woe! Horrid! Ahoy! Shocking! Humph! Fare 
thee well! Farewell! Tut! tut! 



Exclamations. 

All exclamatory sentences should be practiced as in 
•^64, 65, in elementary form, and afterwards as studies 
in the different emotions. 



INFURIATE ANGER. 

"False wizard, avaunt!" 

" Down, soothless insulter ! " 

" Down, down, your lances down ! 
JBear back both friend and foe." 



Interjections and Exclamations. 425 

"A wicked day, and not a holy day." 

A vaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! 
Thy bones are marrow less, thy blood is cold ! " 

"Oh! hell kite!" 

"Pluto and Hell! all hurt behind!" 



RAGE. 

"Blow wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!" 

" Fellow, begone ! " 

"You told a lie, an odious, damned lie; 
Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie ! " 

AUTHORITY. 

" A horse ! a horse ! my kingdom for a horse ! " 

"Lay on, Macduff; 
And damned be him that first cries, ' Hold, enough ! ' " 

"Mend and charge home! Come on!" 

"Hold, hold! for your lives!" 

" Hold, hold ! the general speaks to you." 

DESPONDENCY. 

" O life ! thou art a galling load, 
Along a rough, a weary road, 
To wretches such as I ! " 



M. E.-36. 



Work ! Work ! Work ! 
My labor never flags." 



426 Murdoch's Elocution. 

CONTEMPT. 
"Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs!" 

DISGUST. 
"And smelt so! pah!" 

HORROR. 

"Oh, God! it is a fearful thing 
To see the human soul take wing 
In any shape, in any mood." 

"O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!" 

" O villian, villian, smiling, damned villain ! " 

SURPRISE, MINGLED WITH HORROR. 
"O my prophetic soul! my uncle!" 

SELF-REPROACH. 

"O fool! fool! fool!" 

"O grace! O heaven forgive me!" 

"O wretched fool, 
That liv'st to make thine honesty a vice ! 
O monstrous world ! " 

"Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my repu- 
tation ! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains 
is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation ! " 



Interjections and Exclamations. 427 



GRIEF. 

Nurse* — O lamentable day ! 
Lady Copula.— What 's the matter? 

Nurse. — Look ! look ! O heavy day ! 
Lady Capulet. — O me! O me! My child, my only life, 

Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!" 

"O Desdemona ! Desdemona ! dead! 
Oh! Oh! Oh!" 

"O, woe is me! 
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see ! " 

An exercise of broken melody occurs in the choking 
utterance of Cordelia's words, repeated by the gentleman 
in describing her grief to Kent : 

Kent. — Made she no verbal question ? 
Gentleman. — 'Faith, once, or twice, she heaved the name of father 
Pantingly forth, as if it pressed her heart; 
Cried, Sisters! sisters! — shame of ladies! sisters! 
Kent ! father ! sisters! What? V the storm? V the night? 
Let pity not be believed! — There she shook 
The holy water from her heavenly eyes, 
And clamor moistened; then away she started 
To deal with grief alone." 



PITY AND COMMISERATION. 

"Oh! the cry did knock 
Against my very heart! Poor souls! they perished." 

"Alas! Ah, me! " 

"Oh, help him, you sweet heavens!" 

"Alas, he's mad! " 

Why, how now, Adam ! — no greater heart in thee ? " 



428 Murdoch 's Elocution. 



AMAZEMENT. 

" O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful, and 
yet again wonderful, and after that out of all whooping." 

"Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! " 

" O, what men dare do! what men may do! 
What men daily do ! not knowing what they do ! " 



GRATITUDE. 

"Thanks! champion, thanks." 

"Now blessings light on him that first invented sleep! It 
covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat 
for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold 
for the hot." 

"Now all the blessings 
Of a glad father compass thee about!" 



REGRET. 

"Alas! how light a cause may move 
Dissension between hearts that love ! " 

" Ah ! why will kings forget that they are men, 
And men that they are brethren ? " 



DELIGHT. 

" O Life ! how pleasant in thy morning, 
Young Fancy's rays the hills adorning ! " 

Come, gentle Spring ! ethereal mildness ! come. 



Interjections and Exclamations. 429 



"Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade!" 

"O music! sphere-descended maid, 
Friend of pleasure, wisdom's aid ! " 

" How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude ! " 

"Those evening bells! those evening bells! 
How many a tale their music tells." 



ADMIRATION. 

" Beautiful as sweet ! 
And young as beautiful ! and soft as young ! 
And gay as soft ! and innocent as gay ! " 

"Good, tender, cheerful, happy, wise, 
The child's heart, with the strong man's thought ! 

" Oh ! speak again, bright angel ! " 



JOY. 

"Ring, joyous chords! ring out again! 
A swifter still and a wilder strain." 

"Joy! joy forever! my task is done!" 

" Io ! they come, they come!" 

"Up! let us to the fields!" 

" O, my soul's joy ! 
If after every tempest come such calms, 
May the winds blow till they have waken'd death ! " 

"Joy! Joy! Columbia's friends are trampling through the 
shade ! " 



43° Murdoch' s Elocution, 



" Happy day ! " " Beautiful ! " 

And, oh ! if there be an Elysium on earth, 
It is this, it is this ! " 



COURAGE. 



" Liberty 's in every blow ! 
Let us do or die." 

How sleep the brave who sink to rest, 
By all their country's wishes blessed ! " 

" Up ! comrades ! up ! in Rokeby's halls 
Ne'er be it said our courage falls." 



REPROOF. 

"O shame! where is thy blush?" 
" Vet here, Laertes ! aboard, aboard, for shame ! 

HUMOROUS. 

"O Miss Baily, 
Unfortunate Miss Baily ! " 

" O Sophonisba ! Sophonisba O ! " 

<'0 Amos Cottle! Phcebus ! What a name ! " 

" Up ! up ! my friend, and quit your books, 
Or surely you '11 grow double : 
Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks; 
Why all this toil and trouble ? " 



Interjectio7is and Exclamations* 431 

Bewvolw. — Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. 
Meraitio. — Without his roe, like a dried herring; 
O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified ! " 

"Well! Well! here's a puddle in a storm." 

"By my grandfather's beard, here's matter for merriment." 

" By the Lord, I knew ye, as well as he that made ye." 

"Flat burglary as ever was committed." 

"Why, this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother villain." 

"By the mass, 'tis morning; 
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short." 

" Here 's a tempest in a tea-pot ! all cry and no wool ! " 

"O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption 
for this." 



SELECTIONS 



MISCELLANEOUS READINGS IN PROSE. 



Eulogy on Wendell Phillips. 

When he first spoke at Faneuil Hall some of the most 
renowned American orators were still in their prime. 
Webster and Clay were in the Senate, Choate at the bar, 
Edward Everett upon the Academic platform. From all 
these orators Phillips differed more than they differed from 
each other. Behind Webster, and Everett, and Clay, there 
was always a great organized party, or an intrenched con- 
servatism of feeling and opinion. They spoke accepted 
views. They moved with masses of men, and were sure 
of the applause of party spirit, of political traditions, and 
of established institutions. Phillips stood alone. He was 
not a Whig nor a Democrat, or the graceful panegyrist of 
an undisputed situation. Both parties denounced him. 
He must recruit a new party. Public opinion condemned 
him. He must win public opinion to achieve his purpose. 
The tone, the method of the new orator, announced a new 
spirit. It was not a heroic story of the last century, nor the 
contention of contemporary politics; it was the unsuspected 
heroism of a mightier controversy that breathed and 
burned in his words. With no party behind him, and ap- 

M. E.-37. (433) 



434 Murdoch* s Elocution. 

pealing against established order and acknowledged tradi- 
tion, his speech was necessarily a popular appeal for a 
strange and unwelcome cause, and the condition of its 
success was that it should both charm and rouse the hearer, 
while, under cover of the fascination, the orator unfolded 
his argument and urged his plea. This condition the 
genius of the orator instinctively perceived, and it deter- 
mined the character of his discourse. 

He faced his audience with a tranquil mien, and a beam- 
ing aspect that was never dimmed. He spoke, and in the 
measured cadence of his quiet voice there was intense 
feeling, but no declamation, no passionate appeal, no su- 
perficial and feigned emotion. It was simple colloquy — a 
gentleman conversing. Unconsciously and surely the ear 
and heart were charmed. How was it done ? Ah ! how 
did Mozart do it, how Raphael? The secret of the rose's 
sweetness, of the bird's ecstacy, of the sunset's glory — 
that is the secret of genius and of eloquence. What was 
heard, what was seen, was the form of noble manhood, the 
courteous and self-possessed tone, the flow of modulated 
speech, sparkling with matchless richness of illustration, 
with apt allusion, and happy anecdote, and historic 
parallel, with wit and pitiless invective, with melodious 
pathos, with stinging satire, with crackling epigram and 
limpid humor, like the bright ripples that play around the 
sure and steady prow of the resistless ship. Like an illu- 
minated vase of odors, he glowed with concentrated and 
perfumed fire. The divine energy of his conviction ut- 
terly possessed him, and his 

" Pure and eloquent blood 
Spoke in his cheek, and so distinctly wrought, 
That one might almost say his body thought." 

Was it Pericles swaying the Athenian multitude ? Was 
it Apollo breathing the music of the morning from his lips ? 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 435 

It was an Americas patriot, a modern son of liberty, with 
a soul as firm and as true as was ever consecreted to un- 
selfish duty, pleading with the American conscience for the 
chained and speechless victims of American inhumanity. 

— George Wm. Curtis. 



The Character of Our Saviour. 

The character of Jesus is perfectly original. It is unlike 
every thing which had ever appeared in the world. There 
had, indeed, been eminent persons who had assumed the 
office of instructors of mankind in religion and virtue. 
But Jesus differed widely from them all in the nature of 
his doctrine, in his mode of instruction, in his habits of 
life, and manner of conversation, in the character which 
he assumed, in the dignity of his conduct, in the authority 
of his language, in the proofs which he exhibited of a 
divine commission, and in the manner in which he left 
those proofs to make their proper impression upon the 
mind without himself drawing the genuine conclusions. 

He claimed to be the Messiah, the distinguished person- 
age foretold by the prophets, and expected by the Jews. 
But the form was totally different from that in which he 
was expected to appear, from that which an impostor would 
have worn, which all impostors did actually put on, and 
which the writer of a fictitious narrative would naturally 
have represented. He was expected to appear in all the 
splendor of a prince and a conqueror. He actually ap- 
peared under the form of a pauper and a servant. 

The character which he thus assumed, so entirely new, 
so utterly unexpected, and in many respects so very offen- 
sive to his countrymen, he sustained with the most becom- 
ing propriety. The circumstances in which he was placed 



436 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

were numerous, various, and dissimilar to each other; some 
of them were very critical and difficult; nevertheless, 
upon all occasions he maintains the character of a prophet 
of God, of a teacher of truth and righteousness, with the 
most perfect consistency and dignity; in no instance does 
he forget his situation; upon no occasion, in no emer- 
gency, however sudden or unexpected, under no provoca- 
tion, however irritating, is he surprised or betrayed to do 
any thing unworthy of himself, or unbecoming the sublime 
and sacred mission with which he was charged. 

To support the consistency of a fictitious character 
through a considerable work, even though the character is 
drawn from common life, is a mark of no ordinary capacity 
and judgment. But to adhere from beginning to end to 
truth of delineation in a character perfectly original, in cir- 
cumstances various and new, and especially where super- 
natural agency is introduced, is characteristic of genius of 
the highest order. Attempts to represent a perfect charac- 
ter have failed in the hands of the greatest masters. De- 
fects are visible in the portraits of the philosopher and the 
hero, notwithstanding the masterly penciling and exquisite 
coloring of Plato and Xenophon. But the obscure and 
illiterate evangelists have succeeded to perfection. Not 
one writer only, but four. Not in describing different 
characters, in which they would not have been liable to 
have interfered with each other, but in the representation 
of the same unblemished and extraordinary character, to 
which each has contributed something which the rest have 
omitted, and yet all are perfectly consistent and har- 
monious. The unity of character is invariably preserved. 

Admit that this character actually existed; allow that 
there was such a person as Jesus of Nazareth, and that the 
historians describe nothing but what they saw and heard, 
and to which they were daily witnesses, and the wonder 
ceases; all is natural and easy; the narrators were honest 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 437 

and competent witnesses, and Jesus was a true prophet of 
the Most High. Deny these facts, and the history of the 
evangelists instantly swells into a prodigy of genius, — a 
sublime fiction of the imagination, which surpasses all the 
most celebrated productions of human wit. The illiterate 
Galileans eclipse all the renowned historians, philosophers, 
and poets of Greece and Rome. But who will affirm, or 
who could believe this, of these simple, artless, unaffected 
writers? It is incredible, it is impossible, that these plain 
and unlettered men should have invented so extraordinary, 
so highly finished a romance. Their narrative, therefore, 
must be true. The prophet of Nazareth is a real person, 
and his divine legation is undenjable. I know not how 
this argument may appear to others, but to me it carries 
the force of almost mathematical demonstration. I can not 
conceive a proof which can be more satisfactory to a 
candid, an intelligent, and well informed mind. 



The Human Voice. 



I grieve to say it, but our people, I think, have not 
generally agreeable voices. The marrowy organisms, with 
skins that shed water like the backs of ducks, with smooth 
surfaces neatly padded beneath, and velvet linings to their 
singing pipes, are not so common among us as that other 
pattern of humanity, with angular outlines and plain sur- 
faces, arid integuments, hair like the fibrous covering of 
a cocoanut in gloss and suppleness as well as color, and 
voices at once thin and strenuous, — acidulous enough to 
produce effervescence with alkalis, and stridulous enough 
to sing duetts with the katydids. I think our conversa- 
tional soprano, as sometimes overheard in the cars, arising 
from a group of young persons, who may have taken the 



43 8 Murdochs Elocution. 

train at one of our great industrial centers, for instance, — 
young persons of the female sex, we will say, who have 
bustled in full dressed, engaged in loud, strident speech, 
and who, after free discussion, have fixed on two or more 
double seats, which having secured, they proceed to eat 
apples and hand round daguerreotypes, — I say, I think the 
conversational soprano, heard under these circumstances, 
would not be among the allurements the old enemy would 
put in requisition, were he getting up a new temptation of 
St. Anthony. 

There are sweet voices among us, we all know, and 
voices not musical, it may be, to those who hear them for 
the first time, yet sweeter to us than any we shall hear 
until we listen to some Avarbling angel in the overture to 
that eternity of blissful harmonies we hope to enjoy. But 
why should I tell lies? If my friends love me, it is be- 
cause I try to tell the truth. I never heard but two voices 

in my life that frightened me by their sweetness 

They made me feel as if there might be constituted a 
creature with such a chord in her voice to some string in 
another's soul, that, if she but spoke, we would leave all 
and follow her, though it were into the jaws of Erebus. 
Our only chance to keep our wits is, that there are so few 
natural chords between others' voices and this string in our 
souls, and that those which at first may have jarred a little, 
by-and-by come into harmony with it. But I tell you this 
is no fiction. You may call the story of Ulysses and the 
Sirens a fable, but what will you say to Mario and the poor 
lady who followed him ? 

Whose were those two voices that bewitched me so? 
They both belonged to German women. One was a 
chambermaid, not otherwise fascinating. The key of my 
room at a certain great hotel was missing, and this Teutonic 
maiden was summoned to give information respecting it. 
The simple soul was evidently not long from her mother- 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 439 



land, and spoke with sweet uncertainty of dialect. But 
to hear her wonder and lament and suggest, with soft, 
liquid inflexions, and low, sad murmurs, in tones as full of 
serious tenderness for the fate of the lost key as if it had 
been a child that had strayed from its mother, was so win- 
ning, that, had her features and figure been as delicious as 
her accents, — if she had looked like the marble Clytie, for 
instance, — why, all I can say is ... I was only going to 
say that I should have drowned myself. For Lake Erie 
was close by ; and it is so much better to accept asphyxia, 
which takes only three minutes by the watch, than a mes- 
alliance, that lasts fifty years to begin with, and then passes 
along down the line of descent (breaking out in all man- 
ner of boorish manifestations of feature and manner, 
which, if men were only as short-lived as horses, could be 
readily traced back through the square roots and the cube 
roots of the family stem on which you have hung the 
armorial bearings of the De Champignons or the De la 
Morues, until one came to beings that ate with knives and 
said "Haow?"), that no person of right feeling could have 
hesitated for a single moment. 

The second of the ravishing voices I have heard was, 
as I have said, that of another German woman — I suppose 
I shall ruin myself by saying that such a voice could not 
have come from any Americanized human being. ... It 
had so much woman in it, — muliebrity, as well as femi- 
neity ; — no self-assertion, such as free suffrage introduces 
into every word and movement; large, vigorous nature, 
running back to those huge-limbed Germans of Tacitus, 
but subdued by the reverential training and tuned by the 
kindly culture of fifty generations. Sharp business habits, 
a lean soil, independence, enterprise, and east winds are 
not the best things for the larynx. Still, you hear noble 
voices among us, — I have known families famous for 
them, — but ask the first person you meet a question, and 



44° Murdoch's Elocution. 

ten to one there is a hard, sharp, metallic, matter-of-busi- 
ness clink in the accents of the answer, that produces the 
effect of one of those bells which small trades-people con- 
nect with their shop-doors, and which spring upon your 
ear with such vivacity, as you enter, that your first impulse 
is to retire at once from the precincts. 

— Oliver Wendell Holmes 



Love of Change. 



We must note carefully what distinction there is between 
a healthy and a diseased love of change; for as it was in 
healthy love of change that the Gothic architecture rose, 
it was partly in consequence of diseased love of change 
that it was destroyed. In order to understand this clearly, 
it will be necessary to consider the different ways in which 
change and monotony are presented to us in nature; both 
having their use, like darkness and light, and the one in- 
capable of being enjoyed without the other: change being 
most delightful after some prolongation of monotony, as 
light appears most brilliant after the eyes have been for 
some time closed. 

I believe that the true relations of monotony and change 
may be most simply understood by observing them in 
music. We may therein notice, first, that there is a sub- 
limity and majesty in monotony which there is not in rapid 
or frequent variation. This is true throughout all nature. 
The greater part of the sublimity of the sea depends on its 
monotony ; so also that of desolate moor and mountain 
scenery; and especially the sublimity of motion, as in the 
quiet, unchanged fall and rise of an engine beam. So also 
there is sublimity in darkness which there is not in light. 

Again, monotony, after a certain time, or beyond a cer- 
tain degree, becomes either uninteresting or intolerable, 
and the musician is obliged to break it in one or two ways : 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 441 

either while the air or passage is perpetually repeated, its 
notes are variously enriched and harmonized ; or else, after 
a certain number of repeated passages, an entirely new 
passage is introduced, which is more or less delightful 
according to the length of the previous monotony. Nature, 
of course, uses both these kinds of variation perpetually. 
The sea-waves, resembling each other in general mass, but 
none like its brother in minor divisions and curves, are a 
monotony of the first kind; the great plain, broken by an 
emergent rock or clump of trees, is a monotony of the 
second. 

Farther : in order to the enjoyment of the change in 
either case, a certain degree of patience is required from 
the hearer or observer. In the first case, he must be sat- 
isfied to endure with patience the recurrence of the great 
masses of sound or form, and to seek for entertainment in 
a careful watchfulness of the minor details. In the second 
case, he must bear patiently the infliction of the monotony 
for some moments, in order to feel the full refreshment of 
the change. This is true even of the shortest musical 
passage in which the element of monotony is employed. 
In cases of more majestic monotony, the patience required 
is so considerable that it becomes a kind of pain, — a price 
paid for the future pleasure. Again: the talent of the 
composer is not in the monotony, but in the changes : he 
may show feeling and taste by his use of monotony in cer- 
tain places or degrees; that is to say, by his various em- 
ployment of it; but it is always in the new arrangement or 
invention that his intellect is shown, and not in the mo- 
notony which relieves it. 

Lastly : if the pleasure of change be too often repeated 
it ceases to be delightful, for then change itself becomes 
monotonous, and we are driven to seek delight in extreme 
and fantastic degrees of it. This is the diseased love of 
change of which we have above spoken. 



44 2 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

From these facts we may gather generally that monotony 
is, and ought to be, in itself painful to us, just as darkness 
is; that an architecture which is altogether monotonous is 
a dark or dead architecture; and, of those who love it, 
it may be truly said, "they love darkness rather than 
light." But monotony in certain measure, used in order to 
give value to change, and, above all, that transparent mo- 
notony which, like the shadows of a great painter, suffers 
all manner of dimly suggested form to be seen through the 
body of it, is an essential in architectural as in all other 
composition ; and the endurance of monotony has about 
the same place in a healthy mind that the endurance of 
darkness has : that is to say, as a strong intellect will have 
pleasure in the solemnities of storm and twilight, and in 
the broken and mysterious lights that gleam among them, 
rather than in mere brilliancy and glare, while a frivolous 
mind will dread the shadow and the storm ; and as a great 
man will be ready to endure much darkness of fortune in 
order to reach greater eminence of power or felicity, while 
an inferior man will not pay the price; exactly in like 
manner a great mind will accept, or even delight in, mo- 
notony which would be wearisome to an inferior intellect, 
because it has more patience and power of expectation, 
and is ready to pay the full price for the great future 
pleasure of change. But in all cases it is not that the 
noble nature loves monotony any more than it loves dark- 
ness or pain. But it can bear with it, and receives a high 
pleasure in the endurance or patience, a pleasure neces- 
sary to the well-being of this world; while those who will 
not submit to the temporary sameness, but rush from one 
change to another, gradually dull the edge of change itself, 
and bring a shadow and weariness over the whole world 
from which there is no more escape. 

— John Ruskin. 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 443 



Selection from Speech in the Knapp Trial. 

[Selected from the argument made by Daniel Webster in the trial 
of John F. Knapp for the murder of Joseph White, Esq., of Salem, 
Essex County, Mass., April 6, 1830.] 

Gentlemen, it is a most extraordinary case. In some 
respects it has hardly a precedent anywhere; certainly 
none in our New England history. 

The deed was executed with a degree of self-possession 
and steadiness equal to the wickedness with which it was 
planned. The circumstances now clearly in evidence 
spread out the whole scene before us. Deep sleep had 
fallen on the destined victim, and on all beneath his roof. 
A healthful old man, to whom sleep was sweet, the first 
sound slumbers of the night held him in their soft though 
strong embrace. The assassin enters through the window, 
already prepared, into an unoccupied apartment. With 
noiseless foot he passes the lonely hall, half lighted by the 
moon ; he winds up the ascent of the stairs, and reaches 
the door of the chamber. Of this he moves the lock by 
soft and continued pressure, till it turns on its hinges with- 
out noise, and he enters and beholds his victim before him. 
The room was uncommonly open to the admission of light. 
The face of the innocent sleeper was turned from the mur- 
derer, and the beams of the moon resting on the gray 
locks of the aged temple, showed him where to strike. 
The fatal blow is given ! and the victim passes, without a 
struggle or a motion, from the repose of sleep to the repose 
of death ! It is the assassin's purpose to make sure work ; 
and he yet plies the dagger, though it was obvious that life 
had been destroyed by the blow of the bludgeon. He 
even raises the aged arm, that he may not fail in his aim 
at the heart, and replaces it again over the wounds of the 
poniard. To finish the picture, he explores the wrist for 



444 Murdoctis Elocution. ■ 

the pulse. He feels for it, and ascertains that it beats no 
longer ! It is accomplished. The deed is done. He re- 
treats, retraces his steps to the window, passes out through 
it as he came in, and escapes. He has done the murder — 
no eye has seen him, no ear has heard him. The secret is 
his own, and it is safe. 

Ah! gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. Such a 
secret can be safe nowhere. The whole creation of God 
has neither nook nor corner where the guilty can bestow it 
and say that it is safe. Not to speak of that Eye which 
glances through all disguises, and beholds everything as in 
the splendor of noon, such secrets of guilt are never safe 
from detection, even by men. True it is, generally speak- 
ing, that " Murder will out" True it is, that Providence 
hath so ordained, and doth so govern things, that those 
who break the great law of heaven by shedding man's 
blood seldom succeed in avoiding discovery. Especially 
in a case exciting so much attention as this, discovery 
must come, and will come sooner or later. A thousand 
eyes turn at once to explore every man, every thing, every 
circumstance connected with the time and place; a thou- 
sand ears catch every whisper; a thousand excited minds 
intensely dwell on the scene, shedding all their light, and 
and ready to kindle the slightest circumstance into a blaze 
of discovery. Meantime, the guilty soul can not keep its 
own secret. It is false to itself; or rather it feels an irre- 
sistible impulse of conscience to be true to itself. It labors 
under its guilty possession, and knows not what to do with 
it. The human heart was not made for the residence of 
such an inhabitant. It finds itself preyed on by a torment 
which it dares not acknowledge to God or man. A vulture 
is devouring it, and it can ask no sympathy or assistance 
either from heaven or earth. The secret which the mur- 
derer possesses soon comes to possess him and like the 
evil spirits of which we read, it overcomes him and leads 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 445 

him whithersoever it will. He feels it beating at his heart, 
rising to his throat, and demanding disclosure. He thinks 
the whole world sees it in his face, reads it in his eyes, 
and almost hears its workings in the very silence of his 
thoughts. It has become his master. It betrays his dis- 
cretion, it breaks down his courage, it conquers his pru- 
dence. When suspicions from without begin to embarrass 
him, and the net of circumstances to entangle him, the 
fatal secret struggles with still greater violence to burst 
forth. It must be confessed, it will be confessed, there is 
no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is con- 
fession. 



Parallel Between Pope and Dryden. 

In acquired knowledge, the superiority must be allowed 
to Dryden, whose education was more scholastic, and who, 
before he became an author, had been allowed more time 
for study, with better means of information. His mind 
has a larger range, and he collects his images and illustra- 
tions from a more extensive circumference of science. 
Dryden knew more of man, in his general nature; and 
Pope, in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were 
formed by comprehensive speculation; those of Pope, by 
minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge 
of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope. 

Poetry was not the sole praise of either; for both ex- 
celled likewise in prose : but Pope did not borrow his prose 
from his predecessor. The style of Dryden is capricious 
and varied ; that of Pope is cautious and uniform : Dryden 
obeys the motions of his own mind; Pope constrains his 
mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden is some- 
times vehement and rapid; Pope is always smooth, uniform 
and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into 



446 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of 
abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by 
the scythe and levelled by the roller. 

Of genius — that power that constitutes a poet; that 
quality, without which, judgment is cold, and knowledge is 
inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and 
animates — the superiority must, with some hesitation, be 
allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred, that of this 
poetical vigor, Pope had only a little because Dryden had 
more; for every other writer, since Milton, must give 
place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be said, that if 
he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dry- 
den's performances were always hasty; either excited by 
some external occasion, or extorted by domestic necessity; 
he composed without consideration, and published without 
correction. What his mind could supply at call, or gather 
in one excursion, was all that he sought, and all that he 
gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to con- 
dense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to ac- 
cumulate all that study might produce, or change might 
supply. If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, 
Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire 
the blaze is brighter; of Pope's the heat is more regular 
and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and 
Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent 
astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. 

— Johnson. 



Benevolence and Charity. 

Form as amiable sentiments as you can of nations, com- 
munities of men, and individuals. If they are true, you 
do them only justice; if false, though your opinion does 
not alter their nature and make them lovely, you yourself 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 447 

arc more lovely for entertaining such sentiments. When 
you feel the bright warmth of a temper thoroughly good in 
your own breast, you will see something good in every one 
about you. It is a mark of littleness of spirit to confine 
yourself to some minute part of a man's character: a man 
of generous, open, extended views, will grasp the whole of 
it; without which he can not pass a right judgment on 
any part. He will not arraign a man's general conduct for 
two or three particular actions; as knowing that man is a 
changeable creature, and will not cease to be so, till he is 
united to that Being, who is "the same yesterday, to-day, 
and forever." He strives to out-do his friends in good 
offices, and overcomes his enemies by them. He thinks 
he then receives the greatest injury, when he returns and 
revenges one: for then he is "overcome of evil." Is the 
person young who has injured him ? He will reflect that inex- 
perience of the world, and a warmth of constitution, may 
betray his unpracticed years into several inadvertencies, 
which a more advanced age, his own good sense, and the 
advice of a judicious friend, will correct and rectify. Is 
he old? The infirmities of age and want of health may 
have set an edge upon his spirits, and made him "speak 
unadvisedly with his lips." Is he weak and ignorant? He 
considers that it is a duty incumbent upon the wise to bear 
with those that are not so: "Ye suffer fools gladly," says 
St. Paul, "seeing ye yourselves are wise." In short, he 
judges of himself, as far as he can, with the strict rigor of 
justice; but of others, with the softenings of humanity. 

From charitable and benevolent thoughts, the transition 
is unavoidable to charitable actions. For wherever there is 
an inexhaustible fund of goodness at the heart, it will, 
under all the disadvantages of circumstances, exert itself in 
acts of substantial kindness. He that is substantialjy good, 
will be doing good. The man that has a hearty deter- 
minate will to be charitable, will seldom put men off with 



448 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 

the mere will for the deed. For a sincere desire to do 
good, implies some uneasiness till the thing be done : and 
uneasiness sets the mind at work, and puts it upon the 
stretch to find out a thousand ways and means of obliging, 
which will ever escape the unconcerned, the indifferent, 
and the unfeeling. 

The most proper objects of your bounty are the neces- 
sitous. Give the same sum of money, which you bestow 
on a person in tolerable circumstances, to one in extreme 
poverty; and observe what a wide disproportion of happi- 
ness is produced. In the latter case, it is like giving a 
cordial to a fainting person; in the former, it is like giving 
wine to him who has already quenched his thirst. — " Mercy 
is seasonable in time -of affliction, like clouds of rain in 
time of drought." 

And among the variety of necessitous objects, none have 
a better title to our compassion, than those, who, after hav- 
ing tasted the sweets of plenty, are, by some undeserved 
calamity, obliged, without some charitable relief, to drag 
out the remainder of life in misery and woe : who little 
thought they should ask their daily bread of any but of God ; 
who, after a life led in affluence, "can not dig, and are 
ashamed to beg." And they are to be relieved in such an 
endearing manner, with such a beauty of holiness, that, 
at the same time that their wants are supplied, their con- 
fusion of face may be prevented. 

There is not an instance of this kind in history so affect- 
ing, as that beautiful one of Boaz to Ruth. He knew her 
family, and how she was reduced to the lowest ebb; when, 
therefore, she begged leave to glean in his fields, he or- 
dered his reapers to let fall several handfuls, with a seem- 
ing carelessness, but really with a set design, that she 
might gather them up without being ashamed. Thus did 
he form an artful scheme, that he might give, without the 
vanity and ostentation of giving; and she receive, without 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 449 

the shame and confusion of making acknowledgments, 
'lake the history in the words of Scripture, as it is re- 
corded in the book of Ruth. "And when she was risen 
up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, 
Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her 
not: And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for 
her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke 
her not." This was not only doing a good action; — it was 
doing it likewise with a good grace. 

It is not enough we do no harm, that we be negatively 
good; we must do good, positive good, if we would "enter 
into life." When it would have been as good for the 
world, if such a man had never lived; it would perhaps 
have been better for him, "if he had never been born." 
A scanty fortune may limit your beneficence, and confine 
it chiefly to the circle of your domestics, relations, and 
neighbors; but let your benevolence extend as far as 
thought can travel, to the utmost bounds of the world: 
just as it may be only in your power to beautify the spot 
of ground that lies near and close to you; but you could 
wish, that, as far as your eye can reach, the whole prospect 
before you were cheerful, everything disagreeable were re- 
moved, and everything beautiful made more so. 

— Steele. 



Reflections on Westminster Abbey. 

When I am in a serious humor, I very often walk by 
myself in Westminster Abbey: where the gloominess of 
the place, and the use to which it is applied, with the 
solemnity of the building, and the condition of the people 
who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a kind of melan- 
choly, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not disagreeable. 
I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the churchyard, 

M. E.-38. 



45° Murdoch's Elocution. 

the cloisters, and the church, amusing myself with the 
tombstones and inscriptions that I met with in those several 
regions of the dead. Most of them recorded nothing else 
of the buried person, but that he was born upon one day, 
and died upon another; the whole history of his life being 
comprehended in those two circumstances that are common 
to all mankind. I could not but look upon these registers 
of existence, whether of brass or marble, as a kind of 
satire upon the departed persons; who had left no other 
memorial of them, but that they were born, and that they 
died. 

Upon my going into the church, I entertained myself 
with the digging of a grave; and saw in every shovel-full 
of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or skull 
intermixed with a kind of fresh mouldering earth that 
some time or other had a place in the composition of a 
human body. Upon this I began to consider with myself 
what innumerable multitudes of people lay confused to- 
gether under the pavement of that ancient cathedral; how 
men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers, 
monks and prebendaries, were crumbled among one 
another, and blended together in the same common mass; 
how beauty, strength, and youth, with old age, weakness, 
and deformity, lay undistinguished in the same promiscuous 
heap of matter. 

I know that entertainments of this nature are apt to 
raise dark and dismal thoughts in timorous minds and 
gloomy imaginations; but for my own part, though I am 
always serious, I do not know what it is to be melancholy; 
and can therefore take a view of nature in her deep and 
solemn scenes with the same pleasure as in her most gay 
and delightful ones. By this means I can improve myself 
with those objects which others consider with terror. 
When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion 
of envy dies within me ; when I read the epitaphs of the 



Miscellaneous Readings in Prose. 45 1 



beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out ; when I meet 
with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart 
melts with compassion ; when I see the tomb of the parents 
themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those 
whom we must quickly follow. When I see kings lying by 
those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed 
side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with 
their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and aston- 
ishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of 
mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of 
some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years 
ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be 
contemporaries, and make our appearance together. 

— " Spectator." 



The Man of Genius. 



His science is inexpressibly subtle, directly taught him 
by his Maker, not in any wise communicable or imitable. 
Neither can any written or definitely observable laws enable 
us to do any great thing. It is possible, by measuring and 
administering quantities of colour, to paint a room wall so 
that it shall not hurt the eye; but there are no laws by 
observing which we can become Titians. 

It is possible so to measure and administer syllables, as 
to construct harmonious verse; but there are no laws by 
which we can write Iliads. Out of the poem or the 
picture, once produced, men may elicit laws by the 
volume, and study them with advantage, to the better un- 
derstanding of the existing poem or picture; but no more 
write or paint another, than by discovering laws of vege- 
tation they can make a tree to grow. And therefore, 
wheresoever we find the system and formality of rules 
much dwelt upon, and spoken of as any thing else than a 



452 Murdoch's Elocution. 

help for children, there we may be sure that noble art is 
not even understood, far less reached. And thus it was 
with all the common and public mind in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries. The greater men, indeed, broke 
through the thorn hedges; and, though much time was lost 
by the learned among them in writing Latin verses and 
anagrams, and arranging the framework of quaint sonnets 
and dexterous syllogisms, still they tore their way through 
the sapless thicket by force of intellect or of piety; for it 
was not possible that, either in literature or in painting, 
rules could be received by any strong mind, so as materi- 
ally to interfere with its originality; and the crabbed dis- 
cipline and exact scholarship became an advantage to the 
men who could pass through and despise them; so that 
in spite of the rules of the drama we had Shakespeare, 
and in spite of the rules of art we had Tintoret, — both 
of them, to this day, doing perpetual violence to the 
vulgar scholarship and dim-eyed proprieties of the multi- 
tude. 

— Ruskin. 



Description of the Ampitheatre of Titus. 

Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful 
remains cf the ampitheatre of Titus, which so well de- 
serves the epithet of Colossal. It was a building of an 
elliptic figure, five hundred and sixty-four feet in length, 
and four hundred and sixty-seven in breadth : founded on 
fourscore arches ; and rising, with four successive orders 
of architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty 
feet. The outside of the edifice was encrusted with mar- 
ble and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast 
concave, which formed the inside, were filled, and sur- 
rounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats of marble, cov- 
ered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease, 



Miscellaneous Readi7igs in Prose. 453 

above fourscore thousand spectators. Sixty-four vomitories 
(for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished), 
poured forth the immense multitude; and the entrances, 
passages, and staircases, were contrived with such exquisite 
skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial, the eques- 
trian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his destined place 
without trouble or confusion. 

Nothing was omitted which, in any respect, could be 
subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spec- 
tators. They were protected from the sun and rain by an 
ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The 
air was continually refreshed by the playing of fountains, 
and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of aro- 
matics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, 
was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed 
the most different forms. At one moment, it seemed to 
rise out of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides; 
at another, it exhibited the rugged rocks and caverns of 
Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhausti- 
ble supply of water; and what had just before appeared a 
level plain, might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, 
covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the mon- 
sters of the deep. 

In the decorations of these scenes, the Roman emperors 
displayed their wealth and liberality; and we read, that, on 
various occasions, the whole furniture of the ampitheatre 
consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber. The 
poet who describes the games of Carinus, in the character 
of a shepherd, attracted to the capitol by the fame of their 
magnificence, affirms, that the nets designed as a defence 
against the wild beasts, were of gold wire ; that the porticos 
were gilded; and that the belt or circle, which divided the 
several ranks of spectators from each other, was studded 
with a precious mosaic of beautiful stone 

—Gibbon. 



454 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

DRAMATIC READINGS. 
Dialogue Between King John and Hubert. 

King John. — Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle Hubert, 
We owe thee much ; within this wall of flesh 
There is a soul counts thee her creditor, 
And with advantage means to pay thy love; 
And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath 
Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished. 
Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say, — 
But I will fit it with some better time. 
By heaven, Hubert, I am almost asham'd 
To say what good respect I have of thee. 
Hubert. — I am much bounden to your majesty. 

King John.— Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet: 

But thou shalt have : and creep time ne'er so slow, 

Yet it shall come for me to do thee good. 

I had a thing to say, — but let it go : 

The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day, 

Attended with the pleasures of the world, 

Is all too wanton, and too full of gawds, 

To give me audience : — If the midnight bell 

Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth 

Sound on into the drowsy race of night; 

If this same were a churchyard where we stand, 

And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs; 

Or if that surly spirit, melancholy, 

Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick, 

(Which, else, runs tickling up and down the veins, 

Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes, 

And strain their cheeks to idle merriment, 

A passion hateful to my purposes ;) 

Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes, 

Hear me without thine ears, and make reply 

Without a tongue, using conceit alone, 

Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words; 

Then, in despite of brooded, watchful day, 

I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts: 



Dramatic Readings. 455 

But ah ! I will not : — Yet I love thee well ; 
And, by my troth, I think thou lov'st me well. 
Hubert. — So well, that what you bid me undertake, 

Though that my death were adjunct to my act, 
By heaven, I would do it. 
King John. — Do not I know thou would'st? 

Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye 
On yon young boy : I '11 tell thee what, my friend 
He is a very serpent in my way; 
And wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread 
He lies before me : Dost thou understand me ? 
Thou art his keeper. 
Hubert. — And I '11 keep him so, 

That he shall not offend your majesty. 
King John. — Death. 

Hubert.— My lord? 
King John. — A grave. 

Hubert. — He shall not live. 
King John. — Enough. 

I could be merry now. Hubert, I love thee. 
Well, I '11 not say what I intend for thee : 
Remember. 

— " King John," Shakespeare. 



Scene from "The Iron Chest." 

Scene Third. A Library. Sir Edward discovered at the writing 
table. Adam Winterton attending. 

Sir Edward. — Well bethought; send Walter to me. 

I would employ him; he must ride for me 
On business of much import. 
Winterton. — Lackaday ! 

That it should chance so ! I have sent him forth 
To Winchester, to buy me flannel hose, 
For Winter's coming on. Good lack! that things 
Should fall so crossly. 



45 6 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Sir Edward. — Nay, nay do not fret, 

'Tis better that my business cool, good Adam, 
Than thy old limbs. — Is Wilfred waiting ? 
Winterton. — He is ; 

Here, in the hall, sir. 
Sir Edward. — Send him in, I prithee. 

Winterton. — I shall, sir. Heaven bless you! Heaven bless you! 

Exit Winterton. 

Sir Edward. — Good morning, good old heart: [Rising.] 
This honest soul, 

Would fain look cheery in my house's gloom, 
And, like a gay and sturdy evergreen, 
Smiles in the midst of blast and desolation, 
Where all around him withers. Well, well — withers. 
Perish this frail and fickle frame ! — this clay, 
That, in its dross-like compound, doth contain 
The mind's pure ore and essence. Oh ! that mind, 
That mind of man! that god-like spring of action! 
That source whence learning, virtue, honor, flow ! 
Which lifts us to the stars — which carries us 
O'er the swollen waters of the angry deep, 
As swallows skim the air! That fame's sole fountain, 
That doth transmit a fair and spotless name, 
When the vile trunk is rotten! Give me that! 
Oh ! give me but to live in after-age, 
Remembered and unsullied ! Heaven and earth ! 
Let my pure flame of honor shine in story, 
When I am cold in death, and the slow fire 
That wears my vitals now will no more move me 
Than 'twould a corpse within a monument! 
Books ! Books ! — 

(My only commerce now,) will sometimes rouse me 
Beyond my nature. I have been so warmed, 
So heated by a well-turned rhapsody, 
That I have seemed the hero of the tale, 
So glowingly described. Draw me a man 
Struggling for fame, attaining, keeping it, 
Dead ages since, and the historian 
Decking his memory, in polished phrase, — 



Dramatic Readings. 457 

And I can follow him through every turn, 
Grow wild ID lu> exploits, myself himself, 
Until the thick pulsation of my heart 
Wakes me, to ponder on the thing I am ! 

— COLMAN. 



Scene from Henry V. 



Enter the English host, Cluster, Bedford, Exeter, Salisbury, 
and Westmoreland. 

Gloster. — Where is the king? 
Bedford. — The king himself is rode to view their battle. 
Westm y d. — Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand. 

Exeter. — There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh. 
Salisbury. — God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds. 

God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge: 
If we no more meet till we meet in heaven, 
Then, joyfully; — my noble lord of Bedford, 
My dear lord Gloster, and my good lord Exeter, 
And my kind kinsman, warriors all, — adieu ! 
Bedford. — Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee! 
Exeter. — Farewell,' kind lord; fight valiantly to-day: 

And yet I do thee wrong, to mind thee of it, 
For thou art fram'd for the firm truth of valour. 

Exit Salisbury. 

Bedford. — He is as full of valour as of kindness; 

Princely in both. 
Westm'd. — O that we now had here 

Enter King Henry. 

But one ten thousand of those men in England 

That do no work to-day ! 

K.Henry. — What's he that wishes so? 

My cousin Westmoreland ? — No, my fair cousin : 

If we are marked to die, we are enough 

To do our country loss; and if to live, ♦ 

The fewer men the greater share of honour. 
M. E.-39. 



458 Murdoch's Elocution. 



God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. 

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold; 

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; 

It yearns me not if men my garments wear; 

Such outward things dwell not in my desires: 

But if it be a sin to covet honour 

I am the most offending soul alive. 

No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England: 

God's peace ! I would not lose so great an honour, 

As one man more, methinks, would share from me, 

For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more. 

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, 

That he which hath no stomach to this fight, 

Let him depart ; his passport shall be made, 

And crowns for convoy put into his purse : 

We would not die in that man's company 

That fears his fellowship to die with us. 

This day is called — the feast of Crispian : 

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, 

Will stand a tiptoe when this day is nam'd, 

And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 

He that shall see this day, and live old age, 

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, 

And say, — Tomorrow is Saint Crispian : 

Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars. 

And say, These wounds I had on Crispin 's day. 

Old men forget ; yet all shall be forgot, 

But he '11 remember, with advantages, 

What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, 

Familiar in their mouths as household words, — 

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, 

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster, — 

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd : 

This story shall the good man teach his son ; 

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 

From this day to the ending of the world, 

But we in it shall be remember'd : 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; 

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, 

This day shall gentle his condition : 



Dramatic Rcadi, gs. 459 

And gentlemen in England, now abed, 

Shall think themselves aceurs'd they were not here; 
And hold their manhoods cheap, whiles any speaks 
That fought with us upon Saint CRISPIN'S Day. 

Enter Salisbury. 

Salisbury. — My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed; 
The French are bravely in their battles set, 
And will with all expedience charge on us. 
A'. Henry. — All things are ready, if our minds be so. 

Westm'd. — Perish the man whose mind is backward now! 
K. Henry. — Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz ? 
Weslni'd. — God's will, my liege, 'would you and I alone, 
Without more help, might fight this battle out ! 
K.Henry. — Why, now thou hast unwished five thousand men; 
Which likes me better, than to wish us one. — 
You know your places. God be with you all! 

— Shakespeare. 



Scene from Richard III. 

Scene IV. London. A room in the Toiuer. Enter Clarence and 
Brakenbury. 

Brakenbury. — Why looks your grace so heavily to-day ? 
Clarence. — O, I have pass'd a miserable night, 

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, 
That, as I am a Christian-faithful man, 
I would not spend another such a night 
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days; 
So full of dismal terror was the time. 

Brakenbury. — What was your dream, my lord ? I pray you, tell me. 
Clarence. — Methought that I had broken from the Tower, 
And was embarked to cross to Burgundy ; 
And in my company my brother Gloster : 
Who from my cabin tempted me to walk 
Upon the hatches; there we look'd toward England, 
And cited up a thousand heavy times, 
During the wars of York and Lancaster, 



460 Murdoch's Elocution. 

That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along 
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, 
Methought that Gloster stumbled ; and, in falling, 
Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard, 
Into the tumbling billows of the main. 

Lord ! methought what pain it was to drown ! 
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears! 
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes ! 
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wracks ; 

A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon ; 

Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, 

Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, 

All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea. 

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes 

Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept 

As 't were in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems, 

That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep, 

And mocked the dead bones that lay scatter'd by. 

Brakenbury. — Had you such leisure in the time of death, 
To gaze upon these secrets of the deep ? 
Clarence. — Methought I had; and often did I strive 

To yield the ghost : but still the envious flood 
Stopt in my soul, and would not let it forth 
To find the empty, vast, and wand'ring air; 
But smothered it within my panting bulk, 
Which almost burst to belch it in the sea. 

Brakenbury. — Awak'd you not in this sore agony? 

Clarence. — No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life; 
O, then began the tempest to my soul ! 

1 pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood, 
With that sour ferryman which poets write of, 
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. 

The first that there did greet my stranger soul, 
Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick; 
Who spake aloud, — " What scourge for perjury 
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?" 
And so he vanish'd : then came wandering by 
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair 
Dabbled in blood ; and he shrieked out aloud, — 
" Clarence is come, — false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence,- 
That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury ; — 



/ haui ali c Readings. 461 

Seize Oil him, furies, take him unto torment!" 
With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends 
Environ'cl me, and howled in mine ears 
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise 
I trembling waked, and, for a season after^ 
Could not believe but that I was in hell ; 
Such terrible impression made my dream. 
Brakenbury. — No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you! 
I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it. 
Clarence. — O, Brakenbury, I have done these things, — 
That now give evidence against my soul, — 
For Edward's sake; and see how he requites me! 

God ! if my deep prayers can not appease thee, 
But thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds, 

Yet execute thy wrath on me alone; 

O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children! 

1 pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me; 
My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep. 

Brakenbury. — I will, my lord; God give your grace good rest! 

Clarence relires. 

Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, — 
Makes the night morning, and the noontide night. 
Princes have but their titles for their glories, 
An outward honor for an inward toil ; 
And, for unfelt imaginations, 
They often feel a world of restless cares ; 
So that, between their titles, and low name, 
There 's nothing differs, but the outward fame. 

— SHAKESPEARE. 



Scene from Hamlet. 

Scene I. A room in Polonhis's house. Enter Polonius and Rey- 

NALDO. 

Polonius. — Give him his money, and these notes, Reynaldo. 
Reynaldo. — I will, my lord. 
Polonius. — You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo, 

Before you visit him, to make inquire 

Of his behaviour. 



462 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Reynaldo. — My lord, I did intend it. 

Polonius. — Marry, well said : very well said. Look you, sir, 
Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris; 
And how, and who ; what means, and where they keep, 
What company, at what expense ; and finding, 
By this encompassment and drift of question, 
That they do know my son, come you more nearer 
Than your particular demands will touch it : 
Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him; 
As thus, — ' I know his father, and his friends, 
And, in part, him;' — do you mark this, R.eynaldo? 

Reynaldo. — Ay, very well, my lord. 

Polonius. — 'And, in part, him; but,' you may say, 'not well: 
But, if 't be he I mean, he 's very wild ; 
Addicted so and so : ' and there put on him 
What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank 
As may dishonour him; take heed of that; 
But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips, 
As are companions noted and most known 
To youth and liberty. 

Reynaldo. — As gaming, my lord. 

Polonius. — Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarreling, 
Drabbing : — you may go so far. 

Reynaldo. — My lord, that would dishonour him. 

Polonius. — 'Faith, no ; as you may season it in the charge. 
You must not put another scandal on him, 
That he is open to incontinency ; 
That 's not my meaning : but breathe his faults so 

quaintly, 
That they may seem the taints of liberty : 
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind ; 
A savageness in unreclaimed blood, 
Of general assault. 

Reynaldo. — But, my good lord, — 

Polonius. — Wherefore should you do this? 

Reynaldo. — Ay, my lord, 

I would know that. 

Polonius. — Marry, sir, here's my drift; 

And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant: 
You laying these slight sullies on my son, 
As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' the working, 



Dramatic Readings. 463 

Mark you, 

\ our party in converse, him you would sound, 
Having ever seen, in the prenominate crimes, 
The youth you breathe of, guilty, be assur'd, 
1 1 c closes with you in this consequence; 
'Good sir,' or so; or, 'friend, or gentleman,' — 
According to the phrase and the addition, 
Of man, and country. 

Reynaldo. — Very good, my lord. 

Polonius. — And then, sir, does he this, — he does — 
What was I about to say? By the mass, 
I was about to say something: — Where did I leave? 

Reynaldo. — At, ' closes in the consequence, 

At friend, or so, and gentleman.' 

Polonius. — At, closes in the consequence, — Ay, marry; 

He closes with you thus : — 'I know the gentleman; 

I saw him yesterday, or 't other day, 

Or then, or then; with such, and such; and, as you 

say, 
There was he gaming; there o'ertook in his rouse: 
There falling out at tennis;' or perchance, 
'I saw him enter such a house of sale,' 
(Videlicet, a brothel,) or so forth. — 
See you now ; 

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth: 
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, 
With windlaces, and with assays of bias, 
By indirections find directions out; 
So, by my former lecture and advice, 
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not? 

Reynaldo. — My lord, I have. 

Polonius. — God be wi' you ; fare you well. 

Reynaldo. — Good my lord ! 
Polonius. — Observe his inclination in yourself. 

Reynaldo. — I shall, my lord. 

Polonius. — And let him ply his music. 

Reynaldo. — W T ell, my lord. 

— Shakespeare. 



464 Murdoch's Elocution. 

BIBLE READINGS. 

The Prodigal Son. 

And he said, A certain man had two sons : And the 
younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the 
portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto 
them his living. 

And not many days after the younger son gathered all 
together, and took his journey into a far country, and 
there wasted his substance with riotous living. 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine 
in that land; and he began to be in want. 

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that 
country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks 
that the swine did eat : and no man gave unto him. 

And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired 
servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, 
and I perish with hunger ! 

I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, 
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And 
am no more worthy to be called thy son : make me as one 
of thy hired servants. 

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he 
was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had com- 
passion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned 
against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy 
to be called thy son. 

But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best 
robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and 
shoes on his feet: 

And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us 
eat, and be merry: 



Bible Readings. 465 



For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was 
lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 

Now his elder son was in the field : and as he came and 
drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. 

And he called one of the servants, and asked what these 
things meant. 

And he said unto him, Thy brother is come ; and thy 
father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received 
him safe and sound. 

And he was angry, and would not go in : therefore came 
his father out, and intreated him. 

And he answering, said to his father, Lo, these many 
years do I serve thee: neither transgressed I at any time 
thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, 
that I might make merry with my friends : 

But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath de- 
voured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the 
fatted calf. 

And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and 
all that I have is thine. 

It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad : 

for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was 

lost, and is found. 

— St. Luke. 



Select Passages from the Book of Job. 

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and 
said, 

Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without 
knowledge ? 

Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of 
thee, and answer thou me. 

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
earth ? declare, if thou hast understanding. 



466 Murdoch! s Elocution. 

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or 
who hath stretched the line upon it? 

Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or 
who laid the corner stone thereof; 

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons 
of God shouted for joy ? 

Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, 
as if it had issued out of the womb ? 

When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick 
darkness a swaddling band for it, 

And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and 
doors, 

And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further : and 
here shall thy proud waves be stayed? 

Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and 
caused the dayspring to know his place ? 

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast 
thou walked in the search of the depth ? 

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast 
thou seen the doors of the shadow of death ? 

Where is the way where light dwelleth ? and as for dark- 
ness, where is the place thereof? 

Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or be- 
cause the number of thy days is great ? 

By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the 
east wind upon the earth ? 

Who hath divided a water-course for the overflowing of 
waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; 

To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on 
the wilderness, wherein there is no man; 



Bible Readings. 467 



To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause 
the bud of the tender herb to spring forth ? 

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or 
loose the bands of Orion ? 

Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst 
thou guide Arcturus with his sons ? 

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven ? canst thou set 
the dominion thereof in the earth ? 

Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abund- 
ance of waters may cover thee ? 

Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say 
unto thee, Here we are? 

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath 
given understanding to the heart ? 

Hast thou given the horse strength ? hast thou clothed 
his neck with thunder? 

Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper ? the glory 
of his nostrils is terrible. 

He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength : 
he goeth on to meet the armed men. 

He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither 
turneth he back from the sword. 

The quiver rattleth against him, the" glittering spear and 
the shield. 

He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage : 
neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. 

He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha ! and he smelleth the 
battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. 

Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said, 
Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him ? 
he that reproveth God, let him answer it. 



468 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 
I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no 
thought can be withholden from thee. 



Selection from the Book of Isaiah. 

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for 
them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 

It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy 
and singing : the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, 
the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the 
glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. 

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble 
knees. 

Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear 
not : behold, your God will come with vengeance, even 
God with a recompense; he will come and save you. 

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears 
of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man 
leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing : for in the 
wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. "■ 

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the 
thirsty land springs of water : in the habitation of dragons, 
where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 

And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall 
be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass 
over it ; but it shall be for those : the wayfaring men, 
though fools, shall not err therein. 

No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go 
up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed 
shall walk there : 

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come 
to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads : 
they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing 
shall flee away. 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 469 

MISCELLANEOUS READINGS IN POETRY. 

The Vision of Sir Launfal. 
first prelude. 

Over his keys the musing organist, 

Beginning doubtfully and far away, 
First lets his fingers wander as they list, 

And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay : 
Then, as the touch of his loved instrument 

Gives hope and fervor, nearer draws his theme, 
First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent 

Along the wavering vista of his dream. 



Not only around our infancy 

Doth heaven with all its splendors lie ; 

Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, 

We Sinais climb and know it not; 

Over our manhood bend the skies; 

Against our fallen and traitor lives 

The great winds utter prophecies ; 

With our faint hearts the mountain strives, 

Its arms outstretched, the druid wood 

Waits with its benedicite; 

And to our age's drowsy blood 

Still shouts the inspiring sea. 

Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us; 

The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, 

The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us, 

We bargain for the graves we lie in ; 

At the Devil's booth are all things sold, 

Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold ; 

For a cap and bells our lives we pay, 

Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking : 

'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 

'Tis only God may be had for the asking; 



47° Murdoch's Elocution. 

No price is set on the lavish summer, 

And June may be had by the poorest comer. 

And what is so rare as a day in June ? 

Then, if ever, come perfect days; 

Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, 

And over it softly her warm ear lays : 

Whether we look, or whether we listen, 

We hear life murmur, or see it glisten ; 

Every clod feels a stir of might, 

An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 

And, groping blindly above it for light, 

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers; 

The flush of life may well be seen 

Thrilling back over hills and valleys ; 

The cowslip startles in meadows green, 

The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice. 

And there 's never a leaf nor a blade too mean 

To be some happy creature's palace; 

The little bird sits at his door in the sun, 

Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 

And lets his illumined being o'errun 

With the deluge of summer it receives ; 

His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings, 

And the heart in her dumb breast nutters and sings; 

He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest, — 

In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best? 

Now is the high-tide of the year, 

And whatever of life hath ebbed away 

Comes flooding back, with a ripply cheer, 

Into every bare inlet and creek and bay ; 

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, 

We are happy now because God wills it; 

No matter how barren the past may have been, 

'T is enough for us now that the leaves are green ; 

We sit in the warm shade and feel right well 

How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell ; 

We may shut our eyes, but we can not help knowing 

That skies are clear and grass is growing ; 

The breeze comes whispering in our ear, 

That dandelions are blossoming near, 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 47 1 

That maize lias sprouted, that streams arc (lowing, 

That the river is bluer than the sky, 

That the robin is plastering his house hard by; 

And if the breeze kept the good news back, 

For other couriers we should not lack; 

We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing, — 

And hark! how clear bold chanticleer, 

Warmed with the new wine of the year, 

Tells all in his lusty crowing ! 

Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how ; 

Everything is happy now, 

Everything is upward striving ; 

'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true 

As for grass to be green or skies to be blue, — 

'Tis the natural way of living: 

Who knows whither the clouds have fled ? 

In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; 

And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, 

The heart forgets its sorrow and ache ; 

The soul partakes the season's youth, 

And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe 

Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth, 

Like burnt out craters healed with snow. 



SECOND PRELUDE. 

Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak, 

From the snow five thousand summers old ; 

On open wold and hill-top bleak 

It had gathered all the cold, 

And whirled it like sleet on the wanderer's cheek; 

It carried a shiver everywhere 

From the unleafed boughs and pastures bare; 

The little brook heard it and built a roof 

'Neath which he could house him, winter-proof; 

All night by the white stars' frosty gleams 

He groined his arches and matched his beams ; 

Slender and clear were his crystal spars 

As the lashes of liijht that trim the stars • 



472 Murdoch's Elocution. 

He sculptured every summer delight 

In his halls and chambers out of sight; 

Sometimes his tinkling waters slipt 

Down through a frost-leaved forest-crypt, 

Long, sparkling aisles of steel-stemmed trees 

Bending to counterfeit a breeze ; 

Sometimes the roof no fretwork knew 

But silvery mosses that downward grew ; 

Sometimes it was carved in sharp relief 

"With quaint arabesques of ice-fern leaf ; 

Sometimes it was simply smooth and clear 

For the gladness of heaven to shine through, and here 

He had caught the nodding bulrush-tops 

And hung them thickly with diamond drops, 

Which crystalled the beams of moon and sun, 

And made a star of every one • 

No mortal builder's most rare device 

Could match this winter-palace of ice; 

'T was as if every image that mirrored lay 

In his depths serene through the summer day, 

Each fleeting shadow of earth and sky, 

Lest the happy model should be lost, 

Had been mimicked in fairy masonry 

By the elfin builders of the frost. 

— James Russell Lowell. 



Extracts from "The Voyage of Life." 

" Could I remount the river of my years." — Byron. 

One sweet spring morn, when skies were bright, 

And the earth was green and gay, — 
When fields were bathed in golden light, 
And feathery mist-wreaths, thin and white, 
Were hung on cliff and mountain height, 
Like chaplets twined by the hand of Night 

To bind the brow of Day, — 
All playfully along the wild, 
Quaffing the breezes pure and mild, 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 473 

A thoughtless, merry-hearted child, 
k my careless way ! 

Clapping my hands in childish glee, 

I ran along the lakelet's side, 
Which, to my vision, seemed to be 
The margin of the boundless sea, 

When suddenly I espied, 
Beneath a spreading chestnut-tree 
A light shift', dancing merrily 

Upon the glistening tide. 
Shouting, I waked the echoes round, 
And forward sprang, with one glad bound, 

To reach the feathery oar ; 
Then, leaping lightly to the boat, 
Feeling my little bark afloat, 

I glided from the shore, 
Which in the distance faded fast, 
As, skimming along, I fleetly passed, 
And my gallant vessel gayly cast 

The crystal waves aside, — 
While the rising sun which met my sight, 
Beaming aslant o'er the mountain height, 
Pencilled before me, clear and bright, 
A glittering path of golden light 

Along the trembling tide; 
And, closely following in my wake, 
Gleaming above each billowy flake, 
Bright fish, at play 
'Mid the flashing spray, 
Darted, like silver shafts, away, 

Where'er my paddle plied! 

I floated on : — the river spread 

Wider and deeper than before, 
And boldly now the current sped, 

While, fast receding from the shore, 

My agile vessel swiftly flew, 

When, lo ! uprising, met my view, 

An angry cloud on the heavens' bright blue, 
E.— 40. 



474 Murdoch 's Eloctdion. 

And it hung, like a pall, with a sable hue, 

The heaving waters o'er, — 
While the lightning glared the darkness through, 

And I heard the thunder roar ! 

I floated on: — the storm came fast, 
The billows leaped in the furious blast, 
And rain, and hail, 
Athwart the gale, 

Shot from the flaming skies, 
"While hideous shapes, among the waves, 
Like spectres waked from watery graves, 

Around me seemed to rise ! 
Weary and weak, I floated on, 

'Mid the tempest's shriek, and the lightning's flash, 
'Mid the rushing waves, and the thunder's crash! — 
My vessel o'erwhelmed, and my paddle gone, 
I clung to the wreck, and I floated on ! 



Fearless, I rode the torrent o'er, 

Regardless of' its deafening roar, 

While boldly on my brave bark sped, 

Leaping the rocks which lined its bed, 

Borne on the billows, till at last 

I floated below, and the flood was past ! 

Past! But, alas! 'twas the river no more, 

With its bright blue waves and sylvan shore, 

With its broad green banks and leafy bowers, 

Its warbling birds and its fragrant flowers ! — 

'Twas the bright, blue, beautiful river no more, 

But a gloomy gulf, with a desolate shore, 

And barren banks, which faded away 

In a dreary mist that over them lay; — 

And wearily now I labored on, 

For my spirit was sad, and my strength was gone 

Then backward I gazed, 
With enraptured surprise, 
Where the sinking sun blazed, 
In the bright western skies, — 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 475 

Where the river still rolled, 

Stained with crimson and gold, 
While the mountains and hill-tops were bathed in its dyes! 
And I turned my light boat, firmly grasping my (jar, 
And resolved to remount to the river once more, — 
For I felt that the river alone could restore 
The hopes I had lost 'mid the cataract's roar! 
But I struggled in vain up the foaming ascent, 
As the whirl of the wild waves my feeble oar bent, 
For the stream, rushing on with impetuous flow, 
Still cast my frail skiff to the eddies below: — 
Then, aweary and worn, as I stood in my bark, 
I saw the sun sink, and the waters grow dark ; — 
But, afar from the billows on which I was tost, 
My heart wandered back to the joys it had lost, — 
To the meadow, the woodland, the brook, and the bowers, 
To the glittering lakelet, the birds, and the flowers,— 
And lamenting the scenes which could meet me no more, 
I fell down and wept by that desolate shore ! 

Long years have sullenly worn away, 

Since once, at the close of a sweet spring day, 

A gentle child was seen to guide 

A fragile skiff o'er that torrent's tide. 

From rock to rock, it tremblingly fell, 

But he managed his little vessel well, 

And, borne on the billows' furious flow, 

Came safely down to the gulf below ; — 

Then, turning his boat, he strove to regain 

The river above, but he strove in vain, 

And, aweary, he wept in his shattered bark, 

As the night came on, and the gulf grew dark ! 

Long years have sullenly worn away ; — 

But ever, as on that sweet spring day, 

You may see that frail skiff floating o'er 

The billows which break on the desolate shore ; — 

But a gray old man, with a furrowed brow 

And a trembling hand, guides the vessel now ; 

And toilsomely still he strives to regain 

The river above, but he strives in vain : 



476 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

And his straining eyes are dimmed with tears, 

As he pines for the bliss of his early years, — 

When, over the river of childhood's day, 

His light skiff gallantly glided away, 

And, aweary, he weeps in his shattered bark, 

As the night comes on, and the gulf grows dark. 

— Francis DeHaes Janvier. 



New England's Chevy Chase. 

'T was the dead of the night. By the pine-knot's red light 
Brooks lay, half asleep, when he heard the alarm — 
Only this, and no more, from a voice at the door: 
" The Red Coats are out and have passed Phipps's farm ! " 

Brooks was booted and spurred ; he said never a word ; 
Took his horn from its peg, and his gun from the rack ; 
To the cold midnight air he led out his white mare, 
Strapped the girths and the bridle and sprang to her back. 

Up the North Country Road at her full pace she strode, 
Till Brooks reined her up at John Tarbell's to say: 
" We have got the alarm — they have left Phipps's farm; 
You rouse the East Precinct and I '11 go this way." 

John called his hired man, and they harnessed the span; 
They roused Abram Garfield, and Garfield called me. 
"Turn out right away, let no minute-man stay — 
The Red Coats have landed at Phipps's ! " says he. 

By the Powder-House Green seven others fell in ; 

At Nahum's the Men from the Saw-Mill came down ; 

So that when Jabez Bland gave the word of command, 

And said, " Forward, March ! " there march forward The Town. 

Parson Wilderspin stood by the side of the road, 
And he took off his hat, and he said, " Let us pray! 
O Lord, God of Might, let Thine Angels of Light 
Lead Thy Children to-night to the Glories of Day ! 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 477 

And let Thy Stars fight all the Foes of the Right, 
As the Stars fought of old against Sisera." 

And. from heaven's high Arch those Stars blessed our March, 

Till the last of them faded in twilight away, 

And with Morning's bright beam, by the bank of the stream, 

Half the Country marched in, and we heard Davis say: 

"On the King's own Highway I may travel all day, 

And no man hath warrant to stop me," says he, 

"I've no man that's afraid, and I'll march at their head." 

Then he turned to the boys — " Forward, March ! Follow me." 

And we marched as he said, and the Fifer, he played 
The old " White Cockade," and he played it right well. 
We saw Davis fall dead, but no man was afraid — 
That Bridge we 'd have had, though a Thousand Men fell. 

This opened the Play, and it lasted all Day, 

We made Concord too hot for the Red Coats to stay; 

Down the Lexington Way we stormed — Black, White, and Gray: 

We were first at the Feast, and were last in the Fray. 

They would turn in dismay, as Red Wolves turn at bay. 
They leveled, they fired, they charged up the Road : 
Cephas Willard fell dead ; he was shot in the head 
As he knelt by Aunt Prudence's well-sweep to load. 

John Danforth was hit just in Lexington street, 
John Bridge, at that lane where you cross Beaver Falls; 
And Winch and the Snows just above John Munroe's — 
Swept away by one swoop of the big cannon balls. 

I took Bridge on my knee, but he said : " Don't mind me : 

Fill your horn from mine — let me lie where I be. 

Our Fathers," says he, " that their Sons might be free, 

Left their King on his Throne and came over the Sea ; 

And that man is a Knave or a Fool who, to save 

His life, for a Minute would live like a Slave." 

Well ! all would not do. There were men good as new, — 
From Rumford, from Sangus, from towns far away, — 
Who filled up quick and well for each soldier that fell, 



47& Murdochs Elocution. 

And we drove them, and drove them, and drove them all Day. 
We knew, every one, it was War that begun 
When that morning's marching was only half-done. 

In the hazy twilight at the coming of Night, 

I crowded three buck-shot and one bullet down, 

'T was my last charge of lead, and I aimed her and said : 

"Good luck to you, Lobsters, in old Boston Town." 

In a barn at Milk Row, Ephraim Bates and Thoreau, 
And Baker and Abram and I made a bed ; 
We had mighty sore feet, and we 'd nothing to eat, 
But we 'd driven the Red Coats, and Amos, he said : 
" It's the first time," says he, " that it 's happened to me 
To march to the sea by this road where we 've come ; 
But confound this whole day but we 'd all of us say, 
We'd rather have spent it this way than to home." 



The hunt had begun with the dawn of the sun, 
And night saw the Wolf driven back to his Den. 
And never since then, in the memory of Men, 
Has the old Bay State seen such a hunting again. 

— Edward Everett Hale. 



Song of the Greek Bard. 

The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! 

Where burning Sappho loved and sung, 
Where grew the arts of war and peace, — 

Where Delos rose, and Phcebus sprung ! 
Eternal summer gilds them yet, 
But all, except their sun, is set. 

The Scian and the Teian muse, 
The hero's harp, the lover's lute, 

Have found the fame your shores refuse,* 
Their place of birth alone is mute 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 479 

To sounds which echo further west 
Than yuur sires' " Islands of the lilest." 

The mountains look on Marathon — 

And Marathon looks on the sea; 
And musing there an hour alone, 

I dream'd that (Greece might still be free; 
For standing on the Persians' grave, 
I could not deem myself a slave. 

A king sat on the rocky brow 

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis ; 
• And ships, by thousands, lay below, 

And men in nations; — all were his! 
He counted them at break of day — 
And when the sun set where were they ? 

And where are they? And where art thou, 

My country? On thy voiceless shore 
The heroic lay is tuneless now — 

The heroic bosom beats no more ! 
And must thy lyre, so long divine, 
Degenerate into hands like mine? 

Must zue but weep o'er days more blest? 

Must we but blush ? Our fathers bled. 
Earth ! render back from out thy breast 

A remnant of our Spartan dead ! 
Of the three hundred grant but three, 
To make a new Thermopylae ! 

What, silent still? and silent all? 

Ah ! no ; — the voices of the dead 
Sound like a distant torrent's fall, 

And answer, "Let one living head, 
But one, arise, — we come, we come!" 
'T is but the living who are dumb. 

In vain — in vain; — strike other chords; 
Fill high the cup with Samian wine! 



480 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

Leave battles to the Turkish hordes, 
And shed the blood of Scio's vine ! 
Hark ! rising to the ignoble call — 
How answers each bold Bacchanal ! 

You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet, 
Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone ? 

Of two such lessons, why forget 
The nobler and the manlier one? 

You have the letters Cadmus gave — 

Think ye he meant them for a slave ? 

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine ! 

We will not think of themes like these ! 
It made Anacreon's song divine : 

He served — but served Polycrates — 
A tyrant ; but our masters then 
Were still, at least, our countrymen. 

The tyrant of the Chersonese 

Was freedom's best and bravest friend ; 

That tyrant was Miltiades ! 

Oh that the present hour would lend 

Another despot of the kind ! 

Such chains as his were sure to bind. 

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine ! 

Our virgins dance beneath the shade — 
I see their glorious black eyes shine ; 

But gazing on each glowing maid, 
My own the burning tear-drop laves, 
To think such breasts must suckle slaves. 

Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, 
Where nothing, save the waves and I, 

May hear our mutual murmurs sweep ; 
There, swan-like, let me sing and die : 

A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine — 

Dash down yon cup of Samian wine ! 

—Byron. 



Miscellaneous Read Digs in Poetry* 481 



The Destruction of Sennacherib. 

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, 
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; 
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, 
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. 

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, 
That host with their banners at sunset were seen; 
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, 
That host on the morrow lay wither'd and strown. 

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd ; 
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill, 
And their hearts but once heav'd, and forever grew still ! 

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, 
But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride: 
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. 

And there lay the rider distorted and pale, 
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail ; 
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. 

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal ; 
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord ! 

— Byron. 



Sandalphon. 



Have you read in the Talmud of old, 
In the Legends the Rabbins have told 

Of the limitless realms of the air, — 
Have you read it, — the marvellous story 
Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory, 

Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer? 
M. E.- 41. 



482 Murdoch 's Elocution. 

How, erect, at the outermost gates 
Of the City Celestial he waits, 

With his feet on the ladder of light, 
That, crowded with angels unnumbered, 
By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered 

Alone in the desert at night ? 

The Angels of Wind and of Fire 
Chaunt only one hymn, and expire 

With the song's irresistible stress; 
Expire in their rapture and wonder, 
As harp-strings are broken asunder 

By music they throb to express. 

But serene in the rapturous throng, 
Unmoved by the rush of the song, 

With eyes unimpassioned and slow, 
Among the dead angels, the deathless 
Sandalphon stands listening breathless 

To sounds that ascend from below; — 

From the spirits on earth that adore, 
From the souls that entreat and implore 

In the fervor and passion of prayer; 
From the hearts that are broken with losses, 
And weary with dragging the crosses 

Too heavy for mortals to bear. 

And he gathers the prayers as he stands, 
And they change into flowers in his hands, 

Into garlands of purple and red ; 
And beneath the great arch of the portal, 
Through the streets of the City Immortal 

Is wafted the fragrance they shed. 

It is but a legend, I know, — 
A fable, a phantom, a show, 

Of the ancient Rabbinical lore; 
Yet the old mediaeval tradition, 
The beautiful, strange superstition, 

But haunts me and holds me the more. 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry, 483 

When I look from my window at night, 

And the welkin above is all white, 
All throbbing and panting with stars, 

Among them majestic is standing 

Sandalphon the angel, expanding 
His pinions in nebulous bars. 

And the legend, I feel, is a part 

Of the hunger and thirst of the heart, 

The frenzy and fire of the brain, 
That grasps at the fruitage forbidden, 
The golden pomegranates of Eden, 

To quiet its fever and pain. 

— Longfellow 



The Ride of Collins Graves. 

An incident of the flood in Massachusetts, on May 16, 1874. 

No song of a soldier riding down 

To the raging fight from Winchester town; 

No song of a time that shook the earth 

With the nations' throe at a nation's birth ; 

But the song of a brave man, free from fear 

As Sheridan's self or Paul Revere ; 

Who risked what they risked, free from strife, 

And its promise of glorious pay — his life ! 

The peaceful valley has waked and stirred, 
And the answering echoes of life are heard : 
The dew still clings to the trees and grass, 
And the early toilers smiling pass, 
As they glance aside at the white-walled homes, 
Or up the valley, where merrily comes 
The brook that sparkles in diamond rills 
As the sun comes over the Hampshire hills. 

What was it, that passed like an ominous breath- 
Like a shiver of fear, or a touch of death ? 



484 Murdoch's Elocution. 

What was it? The valley is peaceful still, 
And the leaves are afire on top of the hill. 
It was not a sound — nor a thing of sense — 
But a pain, like the pang of the short suspense 
That thrills the being of those who see 
At their feet the gulf of Eternity ! 

The air of the valley has felt the chill : 
The workers pause at the door of the mill ; 
The housewife, keen to the shivering air, 
Arrests her foot on the cottage stair, 
Instinctive taught by the mother love, 
And thinks of the sleeping ones above. 
Why start the listeners? Why does the course 
Of the mill-stream widen ? Is it a horse — 
Hark to the sound of his hoofs, they say- 
That gallops so wildly Williamsburg way ! 

God ! what was that, like a human shriek 
From the winding valley? Will nobody speak? 
Will nobody answer those women who cry, 
As the awful warnings thunder by ? 

Whence come they ? Listen ! And now they hear 

The sound of the galloping horse-hoofs near; 

They watch the trend of the vale, and see 

The rider who thunders so menacingly, 

With waving arms and warning scream 

To the home-filled banks of the valley stream. 

He draws no rein, but he shakes the street 

With a shout and the ring of the galloping feet; 

And this the cry he flings to the wind : 

"To the hills for your lives! The flood is behind!" 

He cries and is gone; but they know the worst — 

The breast of the Williamsburg dam has burst! 

The basin that nourished their happy homes 

Is changed to a demon — It comes! it comes! 

A monster in aspect, with shaggy front 

Of shattered dwellings, to take the brunt 

Of the homes they shatter — white maned and hoarse, 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 485 



The merciless Terror Tills the course 

Of the narrow valley, and rushing raves, 
With Death on the fust of its hissing waves, 
Till eottage and street and crowded mill 

Are crumbled and crushed. 

But onward still, 
In front of the roaring flood is heard 
The galloping horse and the warning word. 
Thank God! the brave man's life is spared! 
From Williamsburg town he nobly dared 
To race with the flood and take the road 
In front of the terrible swath it mowed. 
For miles it thundered and crashed behind, 
But he looked ahead with a steadfast mind; 
"They must be warned!" was all he said, 
As away on his terrible ride he sped. 

When heroes are called for, bring the crown 
To this Yankee rider; send him down 
On the stream of time with the Curtius old ; 
His deed as the Roman's was brave and bold, 
And the tale can as noble a thrill awake, 
For he offered his life for the people's sake. 

— John Boyle O'Reilly 



Paraphrase of Shakespeare's Crabbed Age and Youth. 

Out, out, Old Age! aroint ye! 
I fain would disappoint ye, 
Nor wrinkled grow and learned 
Before I am inurned. 
Ruthless the hours, and hoary, 
That scatter ills before ye ! 
Thy touch is pestilential, 
Thy lays are penitential; 



486 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 

With stealthy steps thou stealest, 

And life's warm tide congealest ; 

Before thee vainly flying, 

We are already dying. 

Why must the blood grow colder, 

And men and maidens older? 

Bring not thy maledictions, 

Thy grewsome, grim, afflictions, 

Thy bodings bring not hither, 

To make us blight and wither ; 

When this thy frost hath bound us, 

All fairest things around us 

Seem Youth's divine extortion, 

In which we have no portion. 

"Fie, Senex!" saith a lass now, 

" What need ye of a glass, now ? 

Though flower of May be springing, 

And I my songs am singing, 

Thy blood no whit the faster 

Doth flow, my ancient master!" 

Age is by Youth delighted, 

Youth is by Age affrighted ; 

Blithe, sunny May and joysome, 

Still finds December noisome. 

Alack ! a guest unbidden, 

Howe'er our feast be hidden, 

Doth enter with the feaster, 

And make a Lent of Easter! 

I would thou wert not able 

To seat thee at our table ; 

I would that altogether, 

P'rom this thy wintry weather, 

Since Youth and Love must leave us, 

Death might at once retrieve us. 

Old wizard, ill betide ye ! 

I can not yet abide ye ! 

Ah, Youth, sweet Youth, I love ye ! 
There's naught on earth above ye! 
Thou purling bird uncaged, 
That never wilt grow aged, — 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 487 

To whom each day is giving 

Increase of joyous living ! 

Soft words to thee are spoken, 

For thee strong vows are broken ; 

All loves and lovers cluster 

To bask them in thy lustre. 

Ah, girlhood, pout and dimple, 

Half-hid beneath the wimple ! 

Ah, boyhood, blithe and cruel, 

Whose heat doth need no fuel, 

No help of wine and spices, 

And frigid Eld's devices! 

All pleasant things ye find ye, 

And to your sweet selves bind ye. 

For ye alone the motion 

Of brave ships on the ocean ; 

All stars for ye are shining, 

All wreaths your foreheads twining; 

All joys, your joys decreeing, 

Are portions of your being. — 

All fairest sights your features, 

Ye selfish, soulful creatures ! 

Sing me no more distiches 

Of glory, wisdom, riches; 

Tell me no beldame's story 

Of wisdom, wealth, and glory ! 

To Youth these are a wonder : 

To Age, a corpse-light under 

The tomb with rusted portal 

Of that which seemed immortal. 

I, too, in youth's dear fetter, 

Will love my foeman better, — 

Aye, though his ill I study, — 

So he be young and ruddy, 

Than comrade true and golden, 

So he be waxen olden. 

Ah, winsome Youth, stay by us: 

I prithee, do not fly us! 

Ah, Youth, sweet Youth, I love ye! 

There's naught on earth above ye! 



488 Murdoch's Elocution. 



Antony and Cleopatra. 

I AM dying, Egypt, dying, 
Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast, 
And the dark Plutonian shadows 
Gather on the evening blast; 
Let thine arm, oh Queen, enfold me, 
Hush thy sobs and bow thine ear, 
Listen to the great heart secrets 
Thou, and thou alone, must hear. 

Though my scarred and veteran legions 

Bear their eagles high no more, 

And my wrecked and scattered galleys 

Strew dark Actium's fatal shore; 

Though no glittering guards surround me, 

Prompt to do their master's will, 

I must perish like a Roman, 

Die the great Triumvir still. 

Let not Caesar's servile minions 
Mock the lion thus laid low; 
'Twas no foeman's arm that felled him, 
'Twas his own that struck the blow — 
His who, pillowed on thy bosom, 
Turned aside from glory's ray — 
His who, drunk with thy caresses, 
Madly threw a world away. 

Should the base plebeian rabble 
Dare assail my name at Rome, 
Where the noble spouse, Octavia, 
Weeps within her widowed home, 
Seek her ; say the gods bear witness, 
Altars, augurs, circling wings, 
That her blood, with mine commingled, 
Yet shall mount the thrones of kings. 

And for thee, star-eyed Egyptian ! 
Glorious sorceress of the Nile, 
Light the path to Stygian horrors 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 489 

With the splendors of thy smile; 
Give the Qusar crowns and arches, 
Let his brow the laurel twine, 
I can scorn the senate's triumphs, 
Triumphing in love like thine. 

I am dying, Egypt, dying; 
Hark! the insulting foeman's cry, 
They are coming; quick, my falchion, 
Let me front them ere I die. 
Ah, no more amid the battle 
Shall my heart exulting swell, 
Isis and Osiris guard thee, 
Cleopatra, Rome, farewell! 

— Wm. H. Lytle. 



Thomas Buchanan Read. 

The following poem was suggested by a visit to the tomb of Mr. Read at 
Laurel Hill, Philadelphia. 

I stand within a garden, where the fairest flowers bloom, 
And art and nature harmonize, in beauty and perfume ; 
But, on this mound, a sepulchre its granite tribute rears, 
And here I lay a garland, wet with many loving tears. 

I mourn for one whose mind was like a many-sided gem 
Effulgent with prismatic rays, — a regal diadem : 
A friend, whose kindly influence was like the golden light, 
Which, at its dawning, dissipates the shadows of the night. 

A poet, gifted to evoke weird music from his lyre ; 
To fill the hearts of listening throngs with patriotic fire; 
To draw the aged and the young, enchanted, to his feet, 
Inspiring faith, and hope, and love, in accents soft and sweet. 

A poet-artist, by whose touch, as on a mirror thrown, 
Imagination's fairest forms, in living lines were shown : — 
Whose pictures were all poems, full of fancy, grace and thought; 
Whose poems were all pictures, with immortal beauty wrought. 

— Francis DeIIaes Janvier. 



490 Murdoch' s Elocution. 

Song from "The Wild Wagoner of the Alleghanies. ; 

I. 

Where sweeps round the mountains 

The cloud on the gale, 
And streams from their fountains 

Leap into the vale, — 
Like frighted deer leap when 

The storm with his pack 
Rides over the steep in 

The wild torrent's track, — 
Even there my free home is; 

There watch I the flocks 
Wander white as the foam is 

In stairways of rocks. 
Secure in the gorge there 

In freedom we sing, 
And laugh at King George, where 
The eagle is king. 



II. 



I mount the wild horse with 

No saddle or rein, 
And guide his swift course with 

A grasp on his mane ; 
Through paths steep and narrow, 

And scorning the crag, 
I chase with my arrow 

The flight of the stag. 
Through snow-drifts engulfing, 

I follow the bear, 
And face the gaunt wolf when 

He snarls in his lair, 
And watch through the gorge there 

The red panther spring, 
And laugh at King George, where 

The eagle is king. 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 491 



in. 



When April is sounding 

His horn o'er the hills, 
And brooklets are bounding 

In joy to the mills, — 
When warm August slumbers 

Among her green leaves, 
And harvest encumbers 

Her garners with sheaves, — 
When the flail of November 

Is swinging with might, 
And the miller December 

Is mantled with white, — 
In field and in forge there 

The free-hearted sing, 
And laugh at King George, where 

The eagle is king. 

— T. Buchanan Read. 



Dying in Harness. 



Only a fallen horse, stretched out there on the road, 
Stretched in the broken shafts, and crushed by the heavy load ; 
Only a fallen horse, and a circle of wondering eyes 
Watching the 'frighted teamster goading the beast to rise. 

Hold ! for his toil is over — no more labor for him ; 

See the poor neck outstretched, and the patient eyes grow dim ; 

See on the friendly stones how peacefully rests the head — 

Thinking, if dumb beasts think, how good it is to be dead; 

After the weary journey, how restful it is to lie 

With the broken shafts and the cruel load — waiting only to die. 

Watchers, he died in harness — died in the shafts and straps — 
Fell, and the burden killed him : one of the day's mishaps — 
One of the passing wonders marking the city road — 
A toiler dying in harness, heedless of call or goad. 



49 2 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Passers, crowding the pathway, staying your steps awhile, 
What is the symbol? Only death — why should we cease to smile 
At death for a beast of burden? On, through the busy street 
That is ever and ever echoing the tread of the hurrying feet. 

What was the sign ? A symbol to touch the tireless will ? 
Does He who taught in parables speak in parables still ? 
The seed on the rock is wasted — on heedless hearts of men, 
That gather and sow and grasp and lose — labor and sleep — and then — 
Then for the prize ! — a crowd in the street of ever-echoing tread — 
The toiler, crushed by the heavy load, is there in his harness — 
dead! 

— John Boyle O'Retlly. 



Mary of Castle Cary. 

Saw ye my wee thing ? saw ye my ain thing ? 
Saw ye my true-love down by yon lea ? 
Crossed she the meadow, yestreen, at the gloaming? 
Sought she the burnie, where flowers the haw-tree ? 

Her hair it is lint-white; her skin it is milk-white; 
Dark is the blue o' her saft-rolling ee! 
Red, red her ripe lips, and sweeter than roses; 
Where could my wee thing wander frae me ? " 

I sawna your wee thing; I sawna your ain thing; 
Nor saw I your true-love down by yon lea ; 
But I met my bonnie thing late in the gloaming, 
Down by the burnie where flowers the haw-tree. 

Her hair it was lint-white; her skin it was milk-white 
Dark was the blue o' her saft-rolling ee ! 
Red were her ripe lips, and sweeter than roses; 
Sweet were the kisses that she gae to me." 

It wasna my wee thing ; it wasna mine ain thing ; 
Is wasna my true-love ye met by the tree ; 
Proud is her leal heart, and modest her nature; 
She never lo'ed ony till ance she lo'ed me. 



Miscellaneous Readings i?i Poetry. 493 

'Her name it is Mary; she 's frae Caslle Cary, 
Aft has she sat when a bairn on my knee; 
Fair as your face is, vvere't fifty times fairer, 
Young braggar, she ne'er wa'd gie kisses to thee." 

It was then your Mary; she's frae Castle Cary; 
It was then your true-love I met by the tree; 
Proud as her heart is, and modest her nature, 
Sweet were the kisses that she gae to me." 

Sair gloomed his dark brow; blood red his cheek grew; 
Wild flashed the fire frae his red-rolling ee ! 
"Ye's rue sair this morning your boasting and scorning, 
Defend ye, fause traitor, fu' loudly ye lie!" 

Awa wi' beguiling," cried the youth smiling; 
Aff gade the bonnet, the lint-white lock flee; 
The belted plaid fa'ing, her white bosom sha'ing, 
Fair stood the loved maid wi' the dark-rolling ee! 

! Is it my wee thing? is it mine ain thing? 
Is it my true-love here that I see?" 
" O, Jamie, forgie me! your heart's constant to me — 
J '11 never mair wander, dear laddie, frae thee." 

— Hector Macneil. 



The Spinning-Wheel Song* 

Mellow the moonlight to shjne is beginning; 

Close by the window young Eileen is spinning ; 

Bent o'er the fire, her blind grandmother, sitting, 

Is croaning, and moaning, and drowsily knitting — 

" Eileen, achora, I hear some one tapping." 

"'Tis the ivy, dear mother, against the glass flapping." 

" Eileen, I surely hear somebody sighing." 

"'Tis the sound, mother dear, of the summer wind dying." 

Merrily, cheerily, noisily whirring, 

Swings the wheel, spins the reel, while the foot 's stirring ; 

Sprightly, and lightly, and airily ringing, 

Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing. 



494 Murdoch's Elocution. 

"What's that noise that I hear at the window, I wonder?" 

"'Tis the little birds chirping the holly-bush under." 

"What makes you be shoving and moving your stool on, 

And singing all wrong that old song of 'The Coolun?'" 

There 's a form at the casement — the form of her true love — 

And he whispers, with face bent, "I'm waiting for you, love; 

Get up on the stool, through the lattice step lightly, 

We'll rove in the grove while the moon's shining brightly." 

Merrily, cheerily, noisily whirring, 

Swings the wheel, spins the reel, while the foot 's stirring ; 

Sprightly, and lightly, and airily ringing, 

Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing. 

The maid shakes her head, on her lip lays her fingers, 

Steals up from her seat — longs to go, and yet lingers; 

A frightened glance turns to her drowsy grandmother, 

Puts one foot on the stool, spins the wheel with the other. 

Lazily, easily, swings now the wheel round ; 

Slowly and lowly is heard now the reel's sound ; 

Noiseless and light to the lattice above her 

The maid steps — then leaps to the arms of her lover. 

Slower — and slower — and slower the wheel swings ; 

Lower — and lower — and lower the reel rings ; 

Ere the reel and the wheel stop their ringing and moving, 

Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving. 

— John Francis Waller. 



Catawba Wine. 

This song of mine 
Is a song of the Vine, 

To be sung by the glowing embers 
Of wayside inns, 
When the rain begins 

To darken the drear Novembers. 



Miscellaneous Readi7igs in Poetry. 495 

It is not a song 

Of the Scuppernong, 
From warm Carolinian valleys, 

Nor the Isabel 

And the Muscadel 
That bask in our garden alleys. 

Nor the red Mustang, 

Whose clusters hang 
O'er the waves of the Colorado, 

And the fiery flood 

Of whose purple blood 
Has a dash of Spanish bravado. 

For richest and best 

Is the wine of the West, 
That grows by the Beautiful River; 

Whose sweet perfume 

Fills all the room 
With a benison on the giver. 

And as hollow trees 

Are the haunts of bees, 
Forever going and coming; 

So this crystal hive 

Is all alive 
With a swarming and buzzing and humming. 

Very good in its way 

Is the Verzenay, 
Or the Sillery soft and creamy ; 

But Catawba wine 

Has a taste more divine, 
More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy. 

There grows no vine 

By the haunted Rhine, 
By Danube or Guadalquiver, 

Nor on island or cape, 

That bears such a grape 
As grows by the Beautiful Pviver. 



496 Murdoch ' s Elocution. 

Drugged is their juice 

For foreign use, 
When shipped o'er the reeling Atlantic, 

To rack our brains 

With the fever pains, 
That have driven the Old World frantic. 

To the sewers and sinks 

With all such drinks, 
And after them tumble the mixer; 

For a poison malign 

Is such Borgia wine, 
Or at best but a Devil's Elixir. 

While pure as a spring 

Is the wine I sing, 
And to praise it, one needs but name it ; 

For Catawba wine 

Has need of no sign, 
No tavern-bush to proclaim it. 

And this Song of the Vine, 

This greeting of mine, 
The winds and the birds shall deliver 

To the Queen of the West, 

In her garlands dressed, 
On the banks of the Beautiful River. 

— Longfellow. 



The King of Yvetot. 

Thkre reigned a king in Yvetot, 

But little known in story, 

Who, stranger all to grief and woe, 

Slept soundly without glory. 

His night-cap tied by Jenny's care 

(The only crown this king would wear, 

He 'd snooze ! 
Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! 
The merrv monarch of Yvetot. 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 497 

His jolly court he held each day, 
'Neath humble roof of rushes green, 
And on a donkey riding gay 
Through all his kingdom might be seen, 
A happy soul; and thinking well, 
His only guard was — sooth to tell — 

His dog. 
Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! 
The merry monarch of Yvetot. 

No harsh exacting lord was he, 

To grasp more than his folks could give, 

But mild howe'er a king may be, 

His Majesty you know, must live; 

And no man e'er a bumper fill'd, 

Until the jovial prince had swill'd 

His share. 
Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! 
The merry monarch of Yvetot. 

He ne'er sought to enlarge his States; 

But was a neighbor just and kind. 

A pattern to all potentates, 

Would they his bright example mind. 

The only tears he ever caused to fall, 

Was when he died — which you can't call 

His fault. 
Ha, ha, ha ! Ho, ho, ho ! 
The merry monarch of Yvetot. 

— Beranger. 



Nearer, My God, to Thee. 

Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee ! 
E'en though it be a cross 

That raiseth me; 
Still all my song shall be, — 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee ! 



M. E.-42. 



498 Murdochs Elocution. 

Though, like the wanderer, 

The sun gone down, 
Darkness be over me, 

My rest a stone; 
Yet in my dreams I 'd be 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, — 

Nearer to Thee ! 

There let the way appear, 

Steps unto heaven ; 
All that Thou sendest me, 

In mercy given ; 
Angels to beckon me 
Nearer, my God, to Thee,— 

Nearer to Thee ! 

Then with my waking thoughts, 

Bright with Thy praise, 
Out of my stony griefs, 

Bethel I '11 raise ; 
So by my woes to be 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, — 

Nearer to Thee! 

Or if on joyful wing, 

Cleaving the sky, 
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, 

Upward I fly; 
Still all my song shall be, — 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee. 

— Sarah F. Adams. 



A Hymn. 

When all thy mercies, my God, 
My rising soul surveys, 
Transported with the view, I 'm lost 
In wonder, love, and praise. 



Miscellaneous Readings in Poetry. 499 

O how shall words with equal warmth, 
The gratitude declare, 

That glows within my ravished breast? — 
But Thou canst read it there! 

Thy providence my life sustained, 
And all my wants redrest, 
When in the silent womb I lay, 
And hung upon the breast. 

To all my weak complaints and cries 
Thy mercies lent an ear, 
Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learnt 
To form themselves in prayer. 

Unnumbered comforts to my soul 
Thy tender care bestowed, 
Before my infant heart conceived 
From whence those comforts flowed. 

— Joseph Addison. 



A Safe Stronghold. 

Translated by Thomas Carlyle from the German of Martin Luther. 

A Safe Stronghold our God is still, 

A trusty shield and weapon ; 
He '11 help us clear from all the ill 

That hath us now o'ertaken, 
The ancient prince of hell 
Hath risen with purpose fell ; 
Strong mail of craft and power 
He weareth in this hour — 

On earth is not his fellow. 

By force of arms we nothing can — 
Full soon were we down-ridden ; 

But for us fights the proper man, 
Whom God himself hath bidden, 

Ask ye, Who is this same ? 



500 Murdoch's Elocution. 

Christ Jesus is His name, 
The Lord Zebaoth's Son — 
He and no other one 

Shall conquer in the battle. 

And were this world all devils o'er, 
And watching to devour us, 

We lay it not to heart so sore — 
Not they can overpower us. 

And let the prince of ill 

Look grim as e'er he will, 

He harms us not a whit; 

For why? His doom is writ — 
A word shall quickly slay him. 

God's word, for all their craft and force, 
One moment will not linger; 

But, spite of hell, shall have its course— 
'T is written by His finger. 

And though they take our life, 

Goods, honor, children, wife, 

Yet is their profit small ; 

These things shall vanish all — 
The city of God remainuth. 



INDEX 



Prose Extracts. 

TITLE. 

Man Higher than his Dwelling-place 
Latent Principles of Religion 
Unwritten Music .... 
Recollections of a Gifted Woman 
The Professor at the Breakfast Table 
The Musical Instrument 
The Sketch-book 
The Nature of True Eloquence 
The Music of Nature 
Analysis of Hamlet's Speech 
Words 



Qualities of a Well Regulated Mind 
O come, let us sing unto the Lord 
Manners ...... 

Recitation ..... 

Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua 
Song of Israel .... 

The Nobility of Labor . 

Taste and Genius .... 

South Carolina and Massachusetts 
Patriotism ..... 

The beauty of Israel is slain upon Thy 

Then Job answered and said 

Reading the Scriptures and other Holy 

Without God in the World . 

Lord Thurlow's Reply to the Duke of 

Song of Moses .... 



high pla 
Books 
Grafton 



PACE 

138 
138 
140 
140 
141 
142 
158 
163 
182 
203 
296 
298 
300 

309 
310 
310 

3" 

312 

3*7 
330 
336 
34i 
358 
359 
389 
392 
394 



(501) 



5° 2 



Index. 



Poetical Extracts. 

FIRST LINE. 

A bow-shot from her bower eaves 

A fool, a fool! — I met a fool i' th' forest . 

Alack, I am afraid they have awak'd . 

And ever when the moon was low 

And here his course the chieftain staid 

And shall the mortal sons of God 

And wherefore should these good news make me sick 

Angels and ministers of grace defend us 

As Sir Launfal made morn through the darksome gat 

At midnight in his guarded tent . 

Away ! — away ! — and on we dash . 

Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now 

Ayr gurgling kiss'd his pebbled shore . 

Beshrew your heart, for sending me about . 
Breathes there a man with soul so dead 
But, lo ! the dome — the vast and wondrous dome 
But William answer'd short .... 

Come pensive Nun devout and pure 
Content! the good, the golden mean . 

Death is here, and death is there 
Down the dimpled greensward dancing 

Hail! holy Light, offspring of Heav'n first born 

Hear what Highland Nora said . 

He who hath bent him o'er the dead . 

Him have I seen ! oh, sight to cheer . 

How far, how very far it seemed 

I charm thy life from the weapons of strife 
I chatter over stony ways . 
I conjure you, by that which you profess . 
I had a dream, which was not all a dream 
I said to the rose ...... 

Is there a way to forget to think 



Index. 



503 



FIRST LINK. 

It was an eve of autumn's holiest mood 

I who assayed to sing in earlier clays . 

Last came Joy's ecstatic trial 
Leave wringing of your hands 
Let me play the Fool . 
Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day 
Lord Cardinal, to you I speak 



Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors 

Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea . 

Oh for a tongue to curse the slave 

Oh listen, man, a voice within us speaks the startling word 

Oh sweet is the sound of the shuttle and loom 

Once at midnight, just as Arktos . 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends 

On me exercise not thy hatred for this misery befallen 

O now forever, Farewell the tranquil mind . 

O sleep, O gentle sleep .... 

O woe to you, ye lofty halls 

Pack clouds away, and welcome day 

Queen of the silver bow, by thy pale beam 

Search there, nay, probe me 

Sing the bridal of nations .... 

So as I sat upon Appledore .... 

Some words on language may be well applied 

Stay, lady — stay for mercy's sake . 

Stay you that bear the corpse, and set it down 

Tchassan Ouglou is on . 
That I did love thee, Ccesar, O 't is true 
The angel with great joy received his guests 
The armaments, which thunder-strike the walls of rock-built 
cities ....... 

The cock is crowing, the stream is flowing . 



PAGE 

136 

157 

345 
339 
345 
33o 
186 

392 
164 

325 
160 
161 

144 
393 
375 
161 
300 

145 

137 

344 
300 
308 
297 
343 
324 

313 
164 
181 

395 
362 



504 



Index. 



FIRST LINE. 

Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song 

The spring, she is a blessed thing 

The vaults beneath the mosaic stone . 

They do me wrong and I will not endure it 

Thou from primeval nothingness didst call . 

Three times shall a young foot-page 

'Tis a time for memory and for tears . 

Too hard to bear! why did they take me thence 



299 
362 

293 
326 
158 
357 
335 
329 



Upon the king ! let us our lives, our souls . 



139 



Waken, lords and ladies gay .... 

War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war 

We come ! we come ! and ye feel our might 

What is eternity ? . 

What ! while our arms can wield these blades 

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape 

When Duncan is asleep .... 

Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls 

Within 't was brilliant all and light 

With thee, sweet Hope, resides the heavenly light 



160 

339 
36i 
360 
165 

325 
171 

155 
317 
336 



Yet, like some sweet, beguiling melody 
Yon deep bark goes where traffic blows 



162 
337 









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